Today I Smiled: Reading the Narrative

A big thanks to Jeromai who blogged about his experiences in the game "Sleuth", in which he randomly put some blogger names in as participants - myself included! If you haven't read them yet, I suggest you do. It certainly put a smile on MY face this morning. :)

Let’s Play: Sleuth (Sometimes The Simplest Games Create the Best Narrative)
Let’s Play: Sleuth (Who Murdered Gypsy Syl?)

I totally feel bad now that his character got killed in my latest Darklands post... :P

Darklands: A Cold Winter

This is part of The Darklands story.

Winter is setting in when the party leaves Berlin, continuing on the road to Goslar. The usual thieves on the road are easily dispatched but for the first time the group is caught in an ambush by bandit-soldiers. These heavily armored troops have the team flanked, forcing them to fight on multiple fronts against superior numbers.

Something like this!

It is a difficult fight, the end of which sees all hostiles and Jeromai laying dead in the snow. Saddened by the loss the team pushed on to Braunschweig to recuperate, spending a week or so there without being able to find a replacement party member. They are left even more short handed when they leave the town as the first Schulz decides to head back to Kolberg. There's nothing anyone can do to stop him.

The remaining Schulz, Lyle and Ravanel then push on and finally reach the town of Goslar where Ravanel prepares by buying rope and torches while Lyle manages to recruit the 20 year old courtier and skilled fencer, "Lothiriel Wanderer" who hopes to earn some fame in helping to solve the problem in the nearby mines. Once all their preparations are done the team of four leave the city gates and proceed South to their nearby destination.

It wasn't long before they reached the mines of Goslar.

Papers, Please

An old friend of mine gave me this indie game and for something where the graphics are intentionally blocky old-school and your main task is stamping "approved" or "denied" on passports it is surprisingly fun (and stressful)! Having won the "work lottery" you are tasked as the sole operator for a new border gate that sees an infinite queue of people wanting to enter your militaristic state.

The working day goes from 6am to 6pm which translates to around 10-15 minutes in game time so you have to be quick. For each person you process correctly you are paid $5, while each person processed incorrectly deducts your total salary by $5. At the end of the day your meager earnings have to pay for the ever increasing rent and optional food, heating, and medicine for the rest of your family too.

While the first day is pretty straight forward, each new one adds requirements that you need to verify quickly. So far I've had to deal with expired passports, mismatched names, incorrect tickets, forged stamps, and a crazy dude who enjoys wasting my time with false documents. Terrorist attacks also make your day shorter so you'll have to make sure their weight matches what is on the scales in case they are carrying bombs and the like.

Basically it's a timed memory game whose difficulty rapidly increases with each level which includes some interesting moral choices to boot. I think it is something that everyone can enjoy (though there's a nudity setting in there so, minors be warned - guess some people may try to flash their stuff to distract/delay you later on). Papers, Please - I give it two out of two stamps up.

Darklands: Folkwin of Kyrburg

This is part of The Darklands story.

Back at Kolberg the replacement Schulz (since the original one is in the party) tells us they were still raided by bandits recently, this time those of Folkwin of Kyrburg based East of Berlin. That's a surprising distance to be raiding, but the replacement Schulz offers to come with the team to help slay him and since it is on the way to Goslar there is no reason to not accept.

The team, now composed of Jeromai, Lyle, Ravanel and the Schulz twins begin the long journey South West, scaring a wolf pack with fire, defeating many bandits in the woods, resting at a friendly lord's tower and learning some stuff from Aerbo the hermit before finally reaching the ominous castle of Folkwin the robber knight.

Because Hermits always know stuff!

The same plan as before works yet again because it seems these robber knights are stupid. It isn't long before Folkwin is caught alone in his room almost literally with his pants down, and this time the robber knight is slain without any friendly casualties. The team rejoices... and sets his castle on fire, because that seems to be tradition now. After watching it burn, they decide to head to the nearby city of Berlin to celebrate.

Darklands: Lothar of Bar

This is part of The Darklands story.

After resting up in the hamlet the team proceeded East into the forest where the robber knight kept his base. Apart from an empty cave and some misguided brigands the journey was pretty smooth. Ravanel and Bhagpuss decided to try the same technique Bishop Syp had used before, walking up to the gate and asking for food and shelter. Proving she was an excellent student, Lothar let them in again and offered a room for them to spend the night.

Two handed swords hurt.

Sneaking out and finding him alone was almost too easy thanks to Lyle's tracking skills, however it turned out that he was a much harder adversary than their first robber knight. Even with five of them, Lothar managed to wound all of them with his sword skills and in one fell stroke slew his most dangerous opponent, Bhagpuss.

Enraged at his mentor's demise Jeromai went berserk and with a combined team effort managed to bring the big man down. As before the yellow bellied thugs fled upon the sight of their dead leader leaving the team free reign on looting the place, and then setting it on fire in Bhagpuss' memory. Feeling the loss, the Schulz of Kolberg agreed to stay on the team awhile longer which was welcome news.

The sombre trip back to his hamlet was only interrupted by a pack of wild boars who were easily slain and turned into a delicious, revitalizing dinner.

Grinding Gears of Warframe

Unlocking all the missions in this game is turning out to be an interesting challenge, especially the in the further reaches of the solar system. As you might expect, having better high level weaponry will assist you here but first you must have the required mastery rank to use such gear. To gain mastery you must level up your suit (the titular "warframe") and your weapons which both max out at level 30 after which you'll no longer gain anything from using them. If you wish to advance your affinity more, you need to use suits and weapons you previously have NOT levelled and since those are weak, you will most likely be staying away from the harder fringes of the mission paths unless you have a strong team to carry you.

 

The Gravidus Conflict was a good levelling experience.

I can see the merits of the system - not only does it slow down your progress from "finishing" everything but it also encourages you to keep trying out the various equipment the game has to offer. Anyhow, I've only just reached mastery rank 5 right now and the weapon blueprint I want to use requires rank 7+ (fluctuates with updates). This means my further exploration / unlocking is going to slow down a bit until I reach there. Rank 12 is currently the maximum mastery level if you were wondering. Not sure if I'll ever get there but I certainly enjoy the tests that you need to pass to move from rank to the next, not all of which are combat.

Darklands: Providence

This is part of The Darklands story.

Bhagpuss insisted on travelling North East as that's where he felt the town of Goslar was. It was surprisingly difficult to find a map or reliable directions Ravanel realised and now more than ever she missed Syl, her gypsy friend. Fortunately the bishop had taught her well in talking her way out of tolls so entering other towns and random road tax enforcers (other than those employed by the church) were easily convinced to let them by.

There were much fewer bandits while following the road, and those that did show up were easily dispatched of by the soldiers Lyle, Jeromai and Bhagpuss. There was even a wandering merchant caravan they managed to sell some loot to. Eventually they reached the northern sea, and entered a friendly little hamlet called Kolberg.

The Schulz of the town, who acts as their leader, informed them they were headed the wrong way. Pointing out where Goslar was on the map (I seriously only found it then). However since they had already come this far he asked if he could use their help in solving a problem they were having. A problem by the name of Lothar of Bar, the robber knight. In addition he offered to come along to assist the team in putting an end to this evil sinner.

Sounds like a bad guy.

They agreed without hesitation.