Playlist (February 2022) (Patreon)

Hey! Welcome back to the playlist video. I’m still working through my 2021 backlog - so no Pokemon, Horizon, or Elden Ring impressions yet. But here are three games from last year that I wanted to give my thoughts on. Let’s jump in. You can watch it on YouTube above, or read it below.

Guardians of the Galaxy

So, in some ways, Guardians of the Galaxy feels quite similar to Square Enix’s previous Marvel tie-in, the Avengers. It features a weird, kinda knock-off version of the movie’s cast of characters - with a Star Lord, Gamora, Drax and so-on who look a bit like Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana, without having to pay actual license fees to the actors.

But, the big difference is that while the Avengers was a live service game - and got roasted for its endless microtransactions, loot boxes, and grind-y gameplay - Guardians is more traditional singleplayer experience, with a linear design and focus on story. Which, is definitely a welcome change.

Now, the game that Guardians reminds me of the most… is Mass Effect. Which is quite suitable. A very light, watered down take on Mass Effect, I should add. But it’s a game about popping from planet to planet. There are combat sequences, some light exploration of linear levels, and some talky bits. You’ve even got a dialogue wheel, and you can make choices that will have an, admittedly small, impact on the narrative.

Plus, you have a team of crewmates. While you play as Starlord, you’ll be flanked by Rocket, Groot, Gamora, and Drax. And so for most of the game, you’ll have five characters in play at once - two more than you ever saw in Mass Effect.

Which is, actually, one of the game’s downfalls, for me. You see, combat is already kinda complex when just playing as Starlord. You’ve got to dodge multiple targets, there are different ammo types, you’ve got various powers and abilities to pick from, and there’s a whole active reload system.

But you can also tell your four different crewmates what to do. Each one is linked to a different face button, and that opens up a sub menu of attacks. Which is all happening in, pretty much real-time. And, for me, it was just too much to juggle at any one time. After a while I stopped trying to make strategic choices - and just kinda spammed some kind of command whenever my team mates were out of cooldown. Combat just became a mad haze of buttons and menus.

It almost works. I like the idea of telling Groot to freeze an enemy in place with vines, and then get Rocket to follow up with a barrage of missiles. But perhaps as a turn-based tactics game, and not grafted on to the side of an already involved shooter/brawler.

The team mates are also used in some light puzzles, but they are super obvious and repetitive. Every time you see a gap, you ask Groot to make a bridge. Every time you see a big boulder, it’s time for Drax to lift it. There’s never any decision-making or logic involved.

But I think the biggest problem with Guardians of the Galaxy is that it just simply outstays its welcome. This is a really long game, and - for me at least - it felt twice as long as it needed to be. For example, I liked the cast of characters and the team dynamic: but the plotting felt slow and strained. The team seems to break up and reconcile multiple times in the game, and plot points get dragged out forever. And you know that joke in the Guardians movies where Drax doesn’t understand metaphors? Well, it starts to grate after about 10 hours of that.

In the end, I stopped the game early and watched the ending on YouTube.

Overall, I certainly preferred this game to the Avengers. And there’s a lot to like here - just hanging out with the crew is fun, and I particularly enjoyed the moments on the ship between levels where you can just chill out with your buddies. But I’d love to have seen a director’s cut - I’m reminded of Miles Morales which, at about 6 or 7 hours, felt like the perfect superhero experience for me.

Halo Infinite

I wouldn’t say I’m a big Halo fan. I’ve dabbled with the franchise, but I definitely wouldn’t count it among my favourites. But I have to say, I did have a blast with Halo Infinite. And it’s, mostly, down to one big addition to the series.

I’m not talking about the switch to open world. Though, I did enjoy that. Halo’s best battles have often been the ones fought in open spaces where you can dictate your own path into the fight, and bounce around between different weapons, vehicles, and enemy encounters. And Infinite has that in spades: you can take on bases head-on in a tank, or with a sniper rifle from up in the mountains, or from overhead in a… ghost? I wanna say ghost?

But no, the thing that really made me smile was Master Chief’s new grapple hook. I’ve talked before about my love of multi-purpose tools, like Kratos’s Axe and Prey’s Gloo cannon. Well here comes a new challenger. This thing allows you to hookshot around the world, making traversal of the open world more free and fast. You can zip towards enemies, to close the distance before a melee attack or shotgun blast. You can use it to snatch far away equipment like weapons, ammo, and explosive barrels. You can pull away an enemy’s shield, giving you a split second to get a headshot in.

And when you upgrade the hookshot, you charge a ground-pound in mid-air, to cause a massive blast on impact. It just never got boring to fight enemies with this. I didn’t even care that it made the game pretty easy - instead of cranking up the difficulty level, I just enjoyed the empowered fantasy of being a superhero.

Now, as much as I enjoyed this… I have to say, I finished the whole game and I don’t really remember anything about it? The open world of Halo Infinite feels pretty small and repetitive, a lot of the battles just kind of blurred into one, and the story - well, it seems like you need to have played previous Halo games to know what the hell is going on. So perhaps that’s on me.

This could also be the, what we might call… Game Pass effect. This felt, essentially, free. And so I didn’t get too invested in it - just a nice game about hookshotting gorillas to pass the time. I can confidently say I enjoyed it, but it won’t have a lasting impact on me.

KeyWe

Finally, a little co-op game I’ve been meaning to try. This is an Overcooked-inspired game about two kiwis who work in a post office. You’ll need to run around, work together, and juggle tasks to get the post out on time. It’s a very cute game, with a nice New Zealand vibe and - always a fun one for co-op games - a chance to dress up your kiwi in different colours and clothes.

Now, gameplay wise… well, the game can change radically from stage to stage. One might be about using type writers to print messages one letter at a time. Another is about putting stickers on boxes to get them to the right destination. Another has you ferrying letters about in your beak.

And then those level formats can change radically again, as you go through the little story. Suddenly you’re doing typewriter stuff but with vines covering your keys. Or delivering letters in a submerged post office. Or finding packages in quicksand. It’s impressive how often and how much the designers change what you’re doing.

Unfortunately, some of the things you’re asked to do are just a bit… tedious. A nice, simple, fun structure is amped up in difficulty by just making things more annoying. And that kind of killed our fun. My wife and I didn’t finish the game because it tipped the scales from fun to frustrating. And that’s a shame! This can be a charming and delightful game, with a lot of fun to be had - but it doesn’t always hit its targets. We’ve seen plenty of games try to overthrow Overcooked, but nothing’s come close yet.

Thanks for watching, see you again soon.