Greatest Game Evar?

I’m no expert for video games but I know what I like. Every once in a while, you come across a game that tickles your fancy and won’t stop until your red in the face and gasping for air. It’s very possible, that InFamous for the PS3 is such a game.
I have only played it for an hour but it was a spell bound hour. It’s one of those games that, for me, the constellations of stars came into alignment and almost everything they did, so far, has been as close to perfection for a video game to achieve.
Bold words, no doubt.
I, am a huge fan of the story in a video game. I will admit, in recent years, I’ve turned the difficulty down to Easy on some games because…while their fighting systems are fun, I just know they are going to get repetitive. So I don’t care to die 23 times when fighting an end boss. I just want to get past him to see what’s next. I want the story more than I want the game-play.
After playing InFamous, even briefly, I let it roll around in my head to pick apart all the pieces and why it came together for me. Allow me to explain why the game play is so good, and then I can explain why the story is great.

First, the game seems to be taken some of what made Assassin’s Creed a good game. The free-form run everywhere. Assassin’s Creed was a good game, but not a great game. It did allow you to climb everything and that was great amounts of fun. I liked the combat system but it sounds like a lot of people who didn’t. The missions are repetitive and I completely ignored the flag acquiring missions (and thankfully, the game didn’t screw you for ignoring them). A.C. suffered because some of the required jumping was frustrating (not God of War frustrating but still). I died a couple of times from some really talk building falls. The missions are a little boring, because you did the same thing. Wandering around was neat but you had guards who couldn’t seem to recognize you yet Templars knew who you were the instant they saw you. Stealth seemed to amount to lowering your head and moving slower. You move at a brisk pace, especially later in the game, and the guards freak out on your ass. I guess people were allowed to ride horses but not very fast, back in the day. Again, it was a good game but not a great game. The best part being the ability to climb around the world.
InFamous does the same. And…well…better. Not much better, because not much needed to be improved. I was worried about the jumping controls but they are the most forgiving in a game and I’m thankful for that. If you miss your jump but are close, you’ll catch the object you were jumping on (rather than land on it). It’s very parkour in your running style which is almost getting overused but it’s still pretty fricken’ cool. But every once in a while you will miss your fall and plummet to the ground.
Which is pretty fricken’ awesome in InFamous. Why? Oh, I must have forgotten to mention it: InFamous (if you didn’t already know) is a superhero game. You are nigh-invulnerable (to falls at least, less so to bullets). And I don’t know about you, but when I fall a few stories, I really like the idea of cracking pavement under me. And InFamous does not fail to deliver. In fact, you can come down full of cracking lightning if you want. It’s pretty damn cool.
I wasn’t sold on the lightning powers at first. Who’s the most well known lightning guy out there? Electro. Who has the lamest costume next to the Riddler? That would be Electro again.
Regardless, the electricity powers are, without a doubt, a fantastic choice. I don’t even know where to start here.
First, they are flashy. And that’s just cool. Flashy when you use them (blasting lightning bolts out of your hands and shockwaving people with lightning). Flashy when you stand around, cracking with energy. And flashy when you move about the environment. I’d like to think that somebody walked into an office and issued the blanket statement: Electricity…everything…annnnd go! Because even while you’re walking through a puddle of water, electricity crackles through it. When you shoot something metal, like a car or a chain link fence, electricity lingers on it. It’s pretty sexy.
Second, this game has a good vs. evil mechanic (more on that later). The gangs have taken over so when you blast away at them you are actually tasering them into submission. There is a two fold mechanic that is happening. And it’s brilliant. First, you are incapacitating the bad guys, rather than outright murdering them. Second, if you happen to blast a bystander, you only stun them rather than accidentally kill them, which is great if you’re trying to play good. I mean, you’re not going to get a Christmas card from them but at least you can feel like a non-murderous hero. Now you get 5 XP based on taking the baddies down. But you can go and find their stunned into submission bodies and if you want to play evil, throw another jolt of power into them, which not only kills them but earns you 1 extra XP. I really like that they throw in that mechanic to allow the evil players to feel like they are being evil and yet have us good players feel like it’s not so implausible that we are blasting away and not killing the baddies.
My final love of the electricity powers is difficult to explain because it isn’t obvious. The electricity idea just ‘fits’. They make the game fit it and they fit into the game. I’ll try to explain. Without getting into the story too much (that’s for later), you have a huge chunk of a post-apocalyptic city that you can wander around in. Your character stores and controls, but does not generate, electricity. Now this is where I take my hat off to the game designers and give them the Chuck Norris thumbs up and nod. Because they balanced this perfectly.
So at the beginning of the game you shoot lightning bolts and perform a close in shockwave. But all your powers come from a battery inside you (not an actual battery but a number of points of power you possess). Now here’s the thing: I can see a LOT of games that would have said: well…we don’t want you shooting too much, so each shot you do will eat up the battery, that way the player will have to play smart. Instead they went with a: lightning is fucking cool so the amount of energy from your battery that a single electrical bolt is entirely negligible. Go ahead. Squeeze off a hundred or so without recharging. God bless them. Shockwave gives a significant dent to your battery, but you can still fire out probably 6 or so before drying out the internal battery.
So now we come to recharging your battery. The city, for the most part, still has power…thus you just have to walk up to a lamp post and drain the power from it. Easy. And solid gold. And it looks cool.
But wait, it actually gets better.
When I said, your powers fit and the game makes the powers fit. This is where it all comes together. I figure this one part stroke of genius and one part stroke of luck.
InFamous is a sandbox game. You can run around in the world and do kewl stuff. But in every game out there, there are areas which your character isn’t supposed to get into. You’re not supposed to because…well…because the level designers don’t want you to. It’s either where the big bad is or something they don’t want you to explore yet. Most often, this is done in a very heavy handed method: You can’t get in there. The classic locked door that cannot be picked, even if you’re playing a master thief. The force field. The wall of goons that, truly, you could probably beat if the game allowed you to. Whatever. Virtually all games that try to give you a sandbox also give you walls you can’t get past.
InFamous has the same walls…sorta. See, instead of saying, you can’t go in…the game has areas in town that have no functional power. Therefore…you could go in there…but eventually you would run out of juice…and then you would be shot…and then death would come. So instead, you have to do a mission to restore the power to that location, which in turn, allows the game designers to set up whatever hoops they would like for you to go through. But instead of feeling like the artificial/classic locked door, it feels natural. Of course my character wouldn’t go into that area…eventually I’d be helpless.
Let’s now chat about the good vs. evil. This is a mechanic that’s become quite prevalent in games. To me, I first took notice of it in the Star Wars games. Star Wars: Dark Forces was one of the first (that I recall) that gave you a path choice. Do good and you get the good guy ending. Do bad and you get the bad guy ending. Oh and you get good and bad powers as well. Now every Star Wars game does this so it’s become standard. InFamous works with it but does nothing to reinvent the good vs. evil paths. You get different powers if you go good or evil. Two thumbs up for that as it adds to the replayability.
However, the story benefits from the good vs. evil conflict greatly. And they do a great job with it. Better than Star Wars does.
See, in the Star Wars games, your good and evil actions are despite the game, not the cause of the game. You either act like a titanic dickwad to get the evil powers or act like a saint for the good powers. Some acts, which seem neutral, are classified as evil which didn’t seem entirely fair.
InFamous does it better because of it’s storyline.
So let’s touch upon that.
You’re a courier. You were taking a package in ‘the big city’. The package…exploded. While you were carrying it. Naturally, you survive while the city is nearly destroyed. (This actually makes sense because it wasn’t a ‘bomb’ that exploded).
The city is now a quarantine zone. Plague is running rampant. Gangs have taken over and are shooting people. A wall has been put up around the island city. It’s very inspired by the Escape from New York movie. And. You. Have. Superpowers.
Now here is why the good vs. evil works so well. The bystanders who are trying to live are being terrorised by the gangs. And with superpowers, why would you not want to help them. Thus the game gives you obvious justification of why you should turn good. But quickly into the game, the Voice of Survival (some survivalist nut with a TV) goes on to reveal that YOU are a terrorist and should be turned in. As Men In Black put it perfectly: A person is smart. People are stupid. Thus the bystanders quickly turn against you, believing you to be a terrorist. Oh and your girlfriend immediately leaves you (cuz her sister died in the explosion that you appear to have caused) and your best friend is…well…still your friend but a little afraid of you. Thus the game gives you obvious justification of why you should turn evil. Solid gold. The good and evil fit very well into the game and the game fits very well into good and evil. Two great tastes that go great together.
Shortly into the game you try to escape only to be caught. You are sent back into the city with a deal from a federal agent. She’s kinda a bitch but she’s doing her job, so again, you can feel like you’re being a hero working with the law or being a villain who is blackmailed into being her whipping boy. Your missions are given from her to try to find somebody who was at the heart of the package you were carrying. You are given multiple missions that you can explore as needed. But you can just as easily wander the city and look for neat things to do.
So now you have a sandbox game, with a character who has ample justification to be good or evil, with lightning superpowers, who can run every freakin’ where in the city and leap off buildings with reckless abandon and perform missions as needed (they are required to progress the game but you can do them at your leisure). Wow.
I have to say, if this game ends as well as it starts, this will easily be in my top five games of all time.
I’ll give the game designers of InFamous one more zooming focus shot of Chuck Norris giving the thumbs up and a nod. And a slow clap. Awesome game guys.

Mk I is dead. Long live Mk II?

So Privateer Press did the unthinkable about a month ago, and they announced the sweeping change that will herald the end of MkI Warmachine and create MkII Warmachine.
The field test is almost over. They will then be closing it. Doing their final revisions. Printing the book. Then releasing it in January of 2010.
Seriously? That’s like 8 months away?
I do truly respect the company for allowing the fans to give feedback on the models. There have been a few changes but I think it’s pretty obvious that what changes there will be minimal. Some players are crying out for massive re-writes on a figure or unit and that’s clearly not going to happen. I figure that PP already knew what they wanted out of most figures and were happy with their results. A minor rule wording change here or there is all they are really looking for. If something is obviously too powerful or too weak, they might look at it.
Here’s the problem. I, like many players, hate, hate, hate (with a side of hate) winning a game due to a rules screw up. I’m not talking about a player who is obviously cheating but when you honest to god think a rule works one way and realize, always after the game, that it doesn’t. You walked away with a victory, feeling pretty good about yourself, only to have the wind sucked out of your sails because you realized that figure X couldn’t do what you did.
Waramchine is a deeply layered game. In a recent MkII game, I had to move my Arc node just enough to avoid giving my opponent cover. It was fairly critical because my dice rolls are shit. No really, my personal luck stat is pretty low. I’m infamous for some stellar crap dice rolls. So I leave nothing to chance.
But lo and behold, my opponent has a unit that can move outside of the turn sequence. Furthermore, he can counter charge my ‘jack. Therefore, I ran another unit up to cockblock his counter-charger. However, I only did that because I honestly thought he was immune to the feat damage. My opponent agreed at the time. I ended up winning the game. Upon retrospect, my figure could not do what I thought he could do. Thus my ‘win’ was null and void. At least in my mind. It was not a win because I screwed up the rules. I could have not have done what I had done. Now I could have still won the game, but I would have accepted giving the warcaster cover and that would have likely made me miss my critical shots. (As it turns out, I was not able to kill her on the dice rolls that I had but she burned to death due to the fire).
So I hate accepting that my victory was tainted. But I’m big enough to accept that it wasn’t a real win.
Now comes the relevancy. Since they will be making some changes with MKII and that it won’t be coming out for almost a year, what do I do until then?
You see, when I play a wargame, I want to play the most authentic version of it that I can. I want to know all the errata, I want to know the rules, I don’t want to screw up any rule. I want neither player to question: well…if you had used the rules correctly, I probably would have won. The bottom line is, I want neither player to question how it ‘could have been’.
So…what version of Warmachine is authentic? I’m sure the obvious answer is MkI, because MkII isn’t released. However, there have been so many sweeping changes from MkI, I feel…I dunno…dirty to use some of the old rules.
I’ll give some examples here. The Holy Zealots were a fantastic unit. They were cheap. I’m not arguing that. Their cost was low, their damage output and defense was high. I never relied on them all the time, but I did like them and when I used them I felt that they were a well above average unit. My enemies feared them and rightly so. I fear the Khador mortar crew. I fear Eiryss. I fear lots of things. Lemme have something that my opponent fears.
So now…in MkII they are a lot more reasonably. That’s not to say that they are good. They suck compared to their old selves. They can be killed quite easily and their damage output is lowered. They are a fragile unit with a mess of weaknesses. I daresay that I will not readily include them in any army.
So if I play with them in the next year, I will feel cheap. Clearly PP felt that they were too powerful. Clearly they exceeded what the company wanted them to do on the battlefield. So clearly, when I play with them, I’m being cheap. I’m exploiting some old rules that the company has every intension of correcting.
This same issue is compounded by other units. The Idrian Skirmishers have been radically transformed from 1 type of unit to another type of unit. Nobody is arguing that they used to be powerful. But before they had excellent range and excellent melee. They were a unit that did it all (and were expensive). Now they have good range and can fight in melee if pressed into it. Their role changes entirely from MkI to MkII (something that I don’t agree with but whatever, I’m not part of the company). As such, if I use the Skirmishers, any strategy I build with them, anything I do with them, has an expiration date. Once the MkII hits, all their accolades and victories will be null and void. I still think that they are a viable unit in MkII. A LOT more than the Holy Zealots (or about 3 other units). So I have no problems playing them now or in the future. I just hate that what I do with them now will be IMPOSSIBLE in the future.
The final example is of an odd tri-man solo group. Visgoth Rhoven. I hadn’t managed to pick them up yet. This is another unit that goes from one thing to something radically different. They were tuff with two F’s before. They had this crazy armour boost by being together that was excellent. I wasn’t sure how to use them but I was keen to give them a try. They also had an excellent and potent ability to allow another figure to ignore some of the line of sight rules.
The MKII version of them…changed them. They aren’t the tanks that they once were. And they changed the aforementioned line of sight ability to something…close but not quite as potent. So…should I buy them now? They really don’t appeal to me half as much as they used to. I didn’t buy them before because I couldn’t easily find them. Now I’ve found them but am a little sad to see them change so much.
They could, between now and the future, be blessed and see some excellent changes. But I don’t want to base my purchase on what could be.
So I’m stuck. The Visgoth is sitting there at the store now, but if I do go buy them and they turn out to be exactly the same way that they were previewed, I know that I just won’t break them out too much. So why spend the money?
And this spirals into PP’s other game Hordes. I just got the new book with all sorts of new stuff all of which is guaranteed to change. Not: might change in the future. It will be obvious that within two years, all the things I did with the Legion of Everblight will be changed. That those cards full and full of wonderful, glorious murderous text will be changed. I know that ‘so will everybody’s’ but after seeing what happened to some of my beloved units, I know that there are parts of Hordes MkII that I will be delighted with and parts that I will be sad to see go. Just like Warmachine MkI.
So…I guess, over the next year, I’ll try a few more games of MkI Warmachine, and feel cheap for using my Holy Zealots before signing off on them for being a cheap filler for when I have a few points to spare in future MkII armies.
I am, ultimately, looking forward to MKII. The game does run cleaner. But with every revamp, there will be units that players will find to be an efficient use of their points and some that will be a waste of their points. Some units that I hadn’t used in a good long time will be dusted off while other units will shelved. And at least one unit that was shelved will remain that way. I guess it’s just the way of things. Some units will always be more efficient than others.