Tag Archives: Xbox Series X

Halo Fest 2020 – Infinite

By the time I began following Halo Infinite’s development, there were already indications of significant issues at 343 Industries that all but extinguished hopes that many of its more intriguing rumored features would ever materialize. That big, ugly delay didn’t exactly instill confidence either. However, three weeks before the game’s official launch date, its multiplayer was unexpectedly released early, and at its core was a game that somehow felt like Halo again. While the community’s frustrations have come to overshadow this, when the full game launched few weeks later, reviews of its campaign were overwhelmingly positive too. Although I dove right into its multiplayer, it’s been a real test of my willpower to wait this long to finally play the campaign.

There will be consequences...
“There will be consequences…”

Aesthetically, Halo Infinite feels like a bit of a throwback. While the game can look amazing at times, on a technical level, it’s not as ambitious as I think many fans expected. Coupled with 343’s return to the Bungie days of Halo stylistically, which, don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love, the whole thing looks just a little… stale? While there are countless articles and videos you can dig into to understand its technical issues, one of the game’s biggest visual shortcomings is simply its lack of diverse environments. While Halo campaigns have always featured a rich variety of distinct maps, apart from Banished and Forerunner areas, Infinite mostly takes place in a single biome. Hell, a dynamic weather system or even just a more aggressive day/night cycle could have helped. It’s a shame, as overall, I like the game’s look and I really like the vast majority of its new designs, but it falls short of the home run Halo deserved.

With no technical issues to wrestle with, Infinite’s similarly Bungie inspired soundtrack fares far better. Incorporating elements of and otherwise influenced by the series defining work of Marty O’donnell and Michael Salvatori, including some full remakes of classic tracks, I have zero complaints. Again, 343 played it fairly safe here, but after the more experimental soundtracks of Halo 4 and Halo 5, I think returning to its roots was a good move. Specific nitpicks aside, the rest of the audio work, from the way weapons sound to the voice acting, is similarly top-notch.

Hey, I can see my house from here!
“Hey, I can see my house from here!”

Not surprisingly, the majority of my notes are on gameplay, as that’s where 343 took the most risks. Borrowing heavily from the open-world genre, while Infinite’s campaign still consists of a series of linearly progressed levels, there’s now a huge map that you can explore between missions. Oftentimes these more classic-style missions are triggered by reaching specific locations on the map, while others actually take place in the open world itself. Combat-wise, these open world segments don’t feel dissimilar from the larger areas in previous Halo levels, but having such a vast map, so untethered from the campaign’s mission structure is a new concept for the series. Personally, I think it works, though it’s a bit rough around the edges.

First it has to be said, combat in Infinite really feels like Halo in a way that, while hard to describe, is damn satisfying. The weapon balance is just about perfect, and many favorites return in one form or another. There are some new additions, like the Commando, something of a peculiar blend of a DMR and a SAW, though I was particularly attached to Infinite’s take on the good old, versatile Battle Rifle. On the Banished side, the new shock weapons like the Disruptor pistol and the Dynamo grenades are surprisingly effective, as are the long-range Stalker Rifle and Skewer. The two new Forerunner weapons, the Heatwave and the Cindershot, seem practically designed to promote battlefield chaos with their multiple ricocheting projectiles and bouncing explosions, respectively. As for difficulty, playing on Heroic, I felt fairly challenged by fights, especially when I was overmatched yet too careless with my approach, though I admit, most of my deaths early on were probably from falling off of the edge of the map. Well, that, and bosses. There are a number of missions that include scripted boss battles. These don’t play out too differently from similar fights in previous Halo games, but some of these fights were really fun. Overall, big thumbs up!

Not a great time to run out of charges.
“Not a great time to run out of charges.”

This means that moving through the open world, encountering Banished patrols and camps, and tactically taking them out in any way you want, is fantastic too. Naturally, 343 also made some half-hearted attempts to pepper the map with other diversions. You can rescue captured marines, destroy Banished propaganda towers, and take down “high value target” mini-bosses, all of which are just minor spins on the typical fights you’ll have in the world. You can re-take overrun UNSC bases which function similarly to the “tower” mechanic popularized by Ubisoft open world games, revealing notable locations on your map, as well as serving as fast travel and resupply points. You can, of course, also hunt down various collectibles from skulls and audio logs to multiplayer cosmetics. Then there are the Banished outposts, which are open world missions involving taking over much larger Banished bases. Again, at their core, they’re just more opportunities for combat, but they verge on feeling like actual scripted campaign missions. Probably the biggest issue with all of these side activities is how much of a pace-destroying, repetitive slog the campaign can turn into if you’re prioritizing completing/collecting everything, as I did, but that’s not exactly a new problem for the genre.

Adding more types of enemies, weapons, and vehicles could have gone a long way in keeping the open world exciting. Again, 343 were a bit conservative here. The lack of vehicles is particularly egregious with such an expansive open world available for the first time. There are vehicles, certainly, but they show up in the world surprisingly infrequently. Worse yet, when they do show up, the enemy AI’s use of them is bizarrely restrained, while friendly AI doesn’t even bother using vehicles at all. I can imagine patrols of marine Warthogs flying over the hills out of nowhere, massive tank battles in the distance, and air to air skirmishes unfolding overhead as Banshees chase down Pelicans. Come to think of it, we got far more of that kind of stuff in the older games. A real missed opportunity.

Taking the boys out on a Sunday drive.
“Taking the boys out on a Sunday drive.”

That doesn’t stop you from using vehicles, of course. Along with the staples of the series and some returning favorites from Halo 5, we have access to the new UNSC Razorback troop transport. That might sound boring, but loading a Razorback up with marines armed to the teeth is far more effective than the developers probably intended, even if the wonky physics of the Warthog-like vehicles sometimes conspire to ruin the fun. Seriously, who doesn’t love spending several minutes equipping and loading up your marines only to flip over 10 seconds after leaving your FOB?! The Banished’s selection of vehicles is a bit worse, especially since we know they have a lot more in their arsenal from their appearance in Halo Wars 2. More vehicles are added to the sandbox as you upgrade your FOBs from completing activities and unlock more of the map by progressing the campaign, and by the time you’ve made it to the last major section of the map, you’ll probably be spending much of your time exploiting the Wasp to simply fly everywhere. It’s a game changer for sure, and despite the sudden appearance of Banshees and Banished troops armed with Shock Rifles in hopes of countering you, almost the funnest way to travel.

Yes, by far the most unique new addition to the Chief’s tool belt is the Grappleshot, a launchable and retractable grappling hook. We’ve never seen anything like this in Halo before, and oh man, is it satisfying. I’d go as far as to say that the addition of the Grappleshot single-handedly saves Infinite’s new open world from mediocrity. How fun would exploring be without being able to easily scale huge structures and even mountains, and save yourself from the inevitable deadly falls that follow? Oh, and zipping directly onto an enemy, perfectly timing meeting their face with the butt of your rifle (or better yet, an Energy Sword or a Gravity Hammer) is just… *chef’s kiss*

The upgraded Grappleshot also electrocutes your enemies! *grin*
“The upgraded Grappleshot also electrocutes your enemies! *grin*”

Finally, we have the story. As this is the last game of this series, and I’ll want to talk about it a bit, let’s go ahead and summarize the plot right here. As usual I’ll keep it reasonably vague, but this, as well as the two paragraphs after it, contain spoilers. Skip the next three paragraphs if you’ve not played Infinite yet and care about the sort of thing!

The Story: Having spent a year evading the Created, the UNSC flagship Infinity is dispatched to Installation 07 to execute a plan to defeat Cortana. Mere moments after their arrival, the Infinity and her escorts are ambushed by a massive Banished force. The Infinity is abandoned, with its surviving crew scattering to the ring’s surface. During the chaos, the Master Chief comes face to face with Atriox, the leader of the Banished. In the ensuing melee, the Chief is thrown from the Infinity and left for dead. Six months later, he is discovered amongst the debris and revived by a lone UNSC Pelican pilot. Together they discover an encoded message being sent from the Halo and head to its surface to investigate. The Chief finds the Weapon, a copy of the Cortana AI that was the linchpin in UNSC’s now evidently successful plan. The Chief and the Weapon unite and attempt to rally the scant surviving UNSC forces against the ring’s Banished occupiers, now led by Atriox’s lieutenant Escharum after Atriox’s apparent death. During their mission, they encounter the installation’s monitor, 117649 Despondent Pyre, who hysterically warns them of the Harbinger, a dangerous entity that the Banished have released. Later the pair encounter the Harbinger herself, who divulges her plan to repair the ring and free the rest of the Endless, an ancient race imprisoned there by the Forerunners. After being taunted by a hologram of Escharum, who imparts that the Banished and the Harbinger share the same goal, Master Chief and the Weapon hatch a plan to disrupt the Harbinger’s attempts to accelerate the ring’s repair systems. In the process, they discover that these repair efforts are being focused on a specific mysterious part of the ring known as the Silent Auditorium. Escharum again taunts the Chief, baiting him with the coordinates to where he is holding the Pilot captive. Soundly defeating the Banished warlord, the Chief and the Weapon continue on to the Silent Auditorium. While searching the facility, they encounter numerous corrupted fragments of Cortana’s memories. Ultimately, these visions reveal that Cortana sacrificed herself to stop Atriox from releasing the Endless and ensure that the Weapon remained active to guide the Chief. The Chief locates and defeats the Harbinger, but too late as Atriox, in an unknown location, is already freeing the Endless himself.

Before playing it, I was under the impression that Halo Infinite more or less ignored the plot of Halo 5. It doesn’t. In fact, despite leaving out a lot of those details above, it’s actually quite important to Infinite’s plot. Regardless, this was still an incredibly unsatisfying way of following up the semi-cliffhanger ending of Halo 5, skipping ahead and barely even referencing much of the preceding drama outside of audio logs. Playing these games back to back, one moment the fate of the entire galaxy hangs in peril thanks to Cortana’s Created and their Guardian enforcers, the next you’re just facing off against the newest batch of wanna-be Covenant goons, and you completely miss most of that action to boot! Like a good Noir story, there can be something compelling about putting the pieces together after the fact, but I’d argue that Infinite doesn’t lean far enough into it to make it interesting. Instead, it just feels like a flimsy excuse to go a different direction with the story without having to worry too much about the details.

Sign up now for Escharum's officer morale improvement seminar!
“Sign up now for Escharum’s officer morale improvement seminar!”

That wanna-be Covenant comment aside, I do really like the way the Banished are portrayed here, being my favorite depiction of the Brutes by far, and they’re about as fun of an enemy as I could imagine facing while rehashing the Covenant yet again. I also enjoyed the dynamic between Master Chief and his naive new AI companion “the Weapon”, and running around solo with just her at your side (err, in your head) feels like a welcome return to form after Halo 5. I also kind of appreciate Infinite’s attempt to deliver a more grounded, less epic “hero saves the entire universe” kind of story this time around, even though, if we ever get it, I expect the DLC (or standalone sequel) that has us dealing with the Endless to be more along those lines.

That uncertainty is the saddest thing about Infinite. I’d imagine that most of my complaints were due to that aforementioned rocky development, resulting from compromises to get the game shipped, but Infinite was supposedly going to live up to its name by being something of a “live service” game. Yet, it’s obvious that 343 has utterly failed to make that happen, even struggling to put out fixes and new maps for multiplayer with any sort of expediency. With recent news of more departures and layoffs, this could even end up being the last 343 Industries developed Halo game. It’s a shame because the core gameplay and a lot of the ideas here are great, and if fully realized, I think Infinite could have finally been the game to prove that 343 was worthy of carrying the torch. In the end, it is definitely worth playing, but it’s definitely not that.

Well, after that gut punch, I’ll cover the live-action stuff quickly. A pair of teasers, Forever We Fight and Carry On are kind of neat, with the latter showing the Chief squaring off against a Banished Brute. Less neat, the UNSC Archive trailers Unspoken, Project Magnes, and Lightbringers may also be of some interest too. Much more on this subject next!

Halo Fest 2020 – Guardians

With my decision to skip out on the Xbox One meaning I’d likely never play Halo 5, I stayed oblivious to both the considerable amount of pre-release hype and the immediate post-release criticism around the game. That’s not to say I don’t know anything about it as these days it’s difficult to find yourself in any sort of Halo community without stumbling across a ridiculous meme bashing Spartan Locke. Indeed, the game has a remarkably terrible reputation, often slated for having the worst campaign of any of the mainline Halo games. This means I was totally intrigued to finally play it, but my expectations weren’t exactly high.

Guns down in Sanghelios.
“Guns down in Sanghelios.”

Graphically, the Halo franchise’s entry into the 8th generation definitely didn’t disappoint and of course Halo 5 continues the tradition of featuring levels that span across diverse environments which helps showcase this, the awesome “glassed” moon Meridian and the beautiful Elite homeworld Sanghelios being particular standouts. Quite a nice looking game with all of the little touches and polish you’d expect from the series. Technical fidelity aside, 343 Industries continued the stylistic overhaul they started with Halo 4, bringing more of an overall cohesion to the designs of the UNSC. Some of these changes, such as with my beloved Scorpion tank, were perhaps the biggest departures from Halo: CE yet, while still quite respectful of their classic designs. The Covenant and particularly the Prometheans were similarly given a fresh coat of paint.

Things fare a little worse when it comes to gameplay. For the first time in Halo Fest 2020, I was struck by how different Halo 5 felt to play. It’s hard to describe, but it didn’t quite feel like Halo anymore. It was as if the series was moved to a new engine without much care being put into trying to replicate the feel of the previous one. On top of that, the overhauls I mentioned above didn’t stop with the graphics, with many weapons being heavily reworked as well. The classic Assault Rifle / melee combo I’d used as my crutch in literally every game since Halo: CE no longer felt quite as effective. Of course, I quickly got used to all of this and adapted, but I have to imagine that this is a big part of why fans heaped so much praise on how Halo Infinite feels to control.

Atomizing a Promethean Soldier with a Splinter Turret.
“Atomizing a Promethean Soldier with a Splinter Turret.”

Gone are the armor abilities that had been evolving since Halo 3, replaced instead with some inherent “Spartan Abilities”. You can now sprint at will, have built in thrusters to propel you directionally, and you can also perform special charge and ground pound attacks. The charge in particular is used a lot in the campaign to break through walls, unlocking secret stashes or alternate routes. There’s also a new ledge grab, which improves jumping and climbing quite a bit. I’m honestly not sure how “Halo” it all feels, but you’ve definitely got dramatically more maneuverability than ever before. Not technically a Spartan Ability but “assassination” melee moves are also a prominent part of the game now too. Another core change is that all weapons have an “aim down sight”-like system of zooming which is helpful without going all the way into Call of Duty territory.

Speaking of weapons, new to Halo 5 we have the tracking UNSC mini rocket launcher, the Hydra, the Covenant Plasma Caster, which is kind of a combination of the old Concussion Rifle with an alt-fire mode that charges up to fire a high damage projectile, and the Promethean Splinter Turret, which feels like some sort of cannon, and I absolutely grabbed it every time I had the opportunity. They also replaced our beloved SPNKR missile launcher with a totally new model that tracks like in Halo 2. On the vehicle front, the most notable additions are the UNSC Wasp, yet another Hornet and Falcon like aircraft, and the Phaeton, something of a Promethean equivalent. As mentioned, quite a lot of the weapons were tweaked and adjusted, with the Promethean weapons in particular being heavily altered. While I might prefer the old Suppressor, at least it feels like a distinct weapon now.

Chief finally meets the Warden.
“Chief finally meets the Warden.”

Oddly, the difficulty struck me as a bit more brutal than the last few games. Playing on “Heroic” as usual, I felt like I could be killed in only a few shots, encouraging further engagement distances and a bit less aggressive play than usual for me. When things did go pear-shaped, my squadmates could usually be trusted to save the day and revive me. That is, for the first time in the Halo series, every single mission has you running as part of a four person fireteam. You have a single context sensitive button, being able to order them to go to a particular location, get in a vehicle, pick up a weapon, engage an enemy, etc. This works reasonably well, but is a far cry from the highly tactical experience I first dreamed of when hearing about Halo: Reach, largely thanks to the AI squadmates being absolute blithering idiots. At least they give us plenty of banter during missions…

The missions themselves are quite quick. If I hadn’t been obsessively scouring every map for hidden intel and skulls I think I would have wrapped up Halo 5’s campaign in record time. This wasn’t an issue for me though; the game was paced with a momentum that never left me ever stopping to wonder if I was bored, even with the addition of a few new “guns down” areas where all you’re expected to do is wander around and talk to other characters. Really, my only major complaint around the campaign structure and level design is with the repeated Warden Eternal boss fights, and even if it was a bit repetitive running into this goon over and over again, the fights were at least a fun challenge.

Filling a Promethean Knight full of lead.
“Filling a Promethean Knight full of lead.”

Since I griped about them quite a bit during my Halo 4 post, I should mention that the Prometheans have been pretty thoroughly reworked. Knights are now mini-bosses, complete with a “shoot parts off their armor” mechanic for taking them down, and they, along with the Watchers, appear a lot less frequently. Crawlers also appear a lot less, and in much smaller groups when they do. Instead, the Promethean roster now includes a new type of humanoid robot called a “Soldier”. Soldiers can teleport, though not as a frustrating way of fleeing from firefights as with Halo 4’s Knights, and they can wield a variety of weapons, including the above mentioned Splinter Turret. All in all, this version of the Prometheans is far less of a chore to fight and personally, I’m pretty damn happy about that.

So, by now I must have mentioned at least half a dozen things that you might imagine could be responsible for the derision this game constantly gets from the Halo community, but not so fast! I think it’s time for us to talk about Halo 5’s story. Since I feel the need to nitpick it, and from Halo 4 on the games are only loosely connected anyway, I’m going to go ahead and summarize the plot right here. As usual I’ll keep it somewhat vague, but this, as well as the two paragraphs after it, will definitely contain spoilers. Skip the next three paragraphs if you want to avoid them!

Fireteam Osiris heading towards a distant Forerunner Guardian.
“Fireteam Osiris heading towards a distant Forerunner Guardian.”

The Story: Spartan Fireteam Osiris, led by Spartan Jameson Locke, is dispatched from the UNSC Infinity to rescue Dr. Halsey from Covenant faction leader Jul’Mdama. Once planetside, the Spartans find that the Promethean and Covenant forces have turned on each other. Taking advantage of the chaos, Osiris eliminates Jul’Mdama and his retinue and successfully extracts Halsey. Meanwhile, the Master Chief and his fireteam “Blue Team” are conducting a routine mission when the Chief sees a vision of Cortana, who gives him a cryptic message about the planet Meridian. Deciding to investigate instead of returning to the Infinity, Blue Team are listed as AWOL. Arriving on Meridian, Osiris tracks Blue Team to a Forerunner structure housing a Guardian, massive Forerunner ancilla built to police entire systems. Soon after, Osiris catches up to and briefly confronts Blue Team, but they’re able to escape onto the Guardian, leaving Osiris to hastily flee the structure and later the Meridian itself as the Guardian activates and jumps away to devastating effect. Blue Team arrives on an unknown Forerunner planet where Guardians from all over the galaxy are gathering. There Master Chief reunites with Cortana, who shares that when the Didact was defeated his ship performed an emergency jump to this planet, Genesis, where she was able to join the Forerunner data network, the Domain, curing her of her rampancy. She also reveals her plan to take up the Forerunner’s “Mantle of Responsibility” herself, enforcing a new era of peace across the galaxy, seemingly accepting the death and destruction this will inevitably cause. Eager to show Master Chief that her plan will work, she places Blue Team in stasis. Aboard the Infinity, Halsey hatches a plan to hijack a dormant Guardian located on Sanghelios, the Sangheili homeworld. Despite being embroiled in a civil war against the remnants of Jul’Mdama’s Covenant, the Arbiter and his Swords of Sanghelios get Osiris to the Guardian just as it is about to jump away. On Genesis, Osiris, with the help of the planet’s caretaker AI, 031 Exuberant Witness, is able to wrest control of the planet’s systems away from Cortana, freeing Blue Team in the process. Cortana and her fleet of Guardians jump away to continue with their plan. Some time later, with innumerable AIs joining her cause, Cortana and her “Created” begin disabling ships and other technology all over the galaxy, sending the UNSC Infinity on the run.

From the cutscene at the beginning, which is the most over the top depiction of Spartans I’ve seen since “The Package” in Legends, I was bracing for the worst, but thankfully I found most of the claims of the story being a train wreck to be hyperbole. I think my aforementioned low expectations helped a lot, but, despite so much of the story between Halo 4 and Spartan Ops as well as other crucial background information (like who the hell Blue Team actually is, for one) being left to the most dedicated Halo fans to discover via novels and comics, I was able to follow the plot reasonably well. I admit, I was disappointed that the events of Spartan Ops were wrapped up in such an unceremonious way, but I’d probably be even more bummed out to have never played through Spartan Ops and have no idea why Halsey was hanging out with the Covenant and missing an arm, if I even knew who she was in the first place. Regardless, while there are many signs that maybe the game had been rewritten perhaps one too many times and I’m absolutely certain that a closer examination of the game’s plot would reveal it to be a swiss cheese of much more disconcerting plot holes, there are some very cool ideas here.

That actual main character of Halo 5, Spartan Locke.
“That actual main character of Halo 5, Spartan Locke.”

A much more immediate issue is Halo 5’s dialog. I can generously interpret that 343 intended to depict Blue Team as “quiet professionals” but Master Chief hardly says anything and half of the little he does say is, well, just kind of stupid. It’s easy to imagine that after the traumatic loss of his only companion after so many months fighting the Covenant on his own he’s chosen to lose himself in his work, but the game doesn’t make any effort to show us that, and that is an example of what people really mean when they say Halo 5’s writing is bad. Cortana is the real standout to me though, as her physical depiction, voice acting, and even her behavior (like cruelly mocking the members of Osiris towards the end of the game) barely resemble the Cortana we know. Sure, this could be explained by everything that happened to her since Halo 4, but it just feels… off. Speaking of Osiris, it’s absolutely mind boggling that, after the well-known fan backlash over playing the Arbiter for a third of the game in Halo 2, 343 would have us playing Locke and Fireteam Osiris for all but three of the 15 missions in Halo 5. *facepalm*

While I could go much, much further, this is already getting too long. I actually enjoyed the game quite a bit more than I was anticipating. Still, it fails to continue Halo 4’s character development of either Master Chief or Cortana and it fails to wrap up the events Spartan Ops set up in any meaningful way. Indeed, it also sounds like, despite introducing a huge new threat and ending on somewhat of a cliffhanger, it doesn’t connect in an important way to the story of Halo Infinite either. So, while maybe Halo 5 might not deserve every bit of the ridicule it gets online (and indeed, much of the community was quite fond of its multiplayer, and its Forge is supposedly incredible) that doesn’t exactly make it an impressive entry into the series either.

To briefly carry on the tradition of talking about live action media around the series, the “Hunt the Truth” campaign advertisements The Hunt Begins, All Hail / The Cost, and A Hero Falls set up a seriously epic showdown between the Chief and Locke, which, yeah, isn’t even close to what happened. Ooops! What was it I said about too many rewrites again?

Adventure Break!

My partner and I decided to do a quick co-op play through one of the numerous FMV style games we’ve been seeing all over the Xbox Store for years now. Most of these games (titles like The Bunker and The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker) are put out by a publisher called Wales Interactive, though despite similarities, they’re actually developed by a variety of different studios. I guess Wales is trying to corner the market on modern FMV games? Regardless, the one we ended up picking was Late Shift.

Late Shift follows Matt, a 20 something working as an attendant on an overnight shift in a parking garage in London. Almost immediately events on this particular evening lead to Matt being caught up in a criminal plot and, well, to go much more into would spoil things. The story is all, honestly, pretty silly fun. It’s not over the top campy, and the excellent production values lend the whole thing a more serious tone than it probably deserves. That‘s the part where I was pleasantly surprised, actually. The production, direction, acting; they’re all surprisingly good. As a movie it might not win any Academy Awards but as a game? Maybe this comes from playing too many FMVs in the 90s, but I tend to expect a certain amount of grade-a terrible from my FMV games. I mean, that’s the main draw to people going back and replaying them these days, right? On the other hand, Late Shift feels like it actually had a budget. Pfft!

Things go off the rails in Late Shift quite quickly.
“Things go off the rails in Late Shift quite quickly.”

Another interesting thing about Late Shift (and from what I gather, most of these other Wales FMV games) is that they’re not what a lot of us old timers would think of when we think of FMV games. In the 90s most FMV games were simply games that used copious amounts of embedded video sequences and/or cutscenes, and maybe some digitized spites for good measure. Gameplay wise, while some were games of a distinct genre that got slapped with the label simply for featuring a lot of video, the majority of these games weren’t far off from the classic point and click adventure game formula, though the more they leaned on video the less interactive they tended to be.

Late Shift takes that to the extreme, being something more along the lines of an interactive movie; imagine a Telltale game with nothing but cutscenes and decisions, or Dragon’s Lair with all of the input relating to decisions rather than quick time event like action. This made me think a lot about a similar game I played before Late Shift, but one I never wrote about here due to it being presented as less of a game and more of an interactive movie. Netflix’s surprisingly high profile experiment Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. The idea of an interactive movie played with just a remote isn’t really anything new; there were various similar games released when DVD first started blowing up (including a version of the aforementioned Dragon’s Lair) and I suppose it makes even more sense with modern streaming technology.

Your average Bandersnatch dilemma.
“Your average Bandersnatch dilemma.”

Really, Bandersnatch is quite interesting in its own right. It’s about a budding game developer in the days of the UK’s storied early 1980s bedroom programming scene. This is a pretty damn esoteric subject to most Americans, but it’s one I happen to be into so I was sold on the premise alone. As you follow the main character Stefan through being offered a job at a game studio alongside one of his programming idols, Colin, you’re occasionally prompted to make decisions to progress the plot, and believe me this, it goes all over the place. Indeed, Bandersnatch is far from a straightforward experience. Fitting with Black Mirror’s overarching themes of the existential dark side of modern technological advancement, the fourth wall is broken in numerous ways throughout, and the game itself is all too happy to punish you for picking the obvious “right” choices, leading to dead ends and other unsatisfying endings which ultimately encourage or otherwise manipulate you to replay the game multiple times, exploring the branches of its decision tree ad nauseam. In some ways, this reminds me a lot of how old classic adventure games were intended to be played; by sinking endless hours into them to figure out solutions to every puzzle on your own through copious amounts of exploration and trial and error.

Shit continues to escalate in Late Shift...
“Shit continues to escalate in Late Shift…”

Late Shift is far more traditional in this respect. It doesn’t try to play clever mind games with the player. You’re simply making decisions as presented to you and watching how those choices affect the events of the story until eventually reaching one conclusion or another. There’s no complicated decision structures that need to be charted to be understood, nor any trick options or any other elements of subversive design here. In fact, compare these flowcharts based on the choices for both games: Bandersnatch vs Late Shift. It should be noted that Late Shift features a lot more choices than shown here, though those not represented in this flowchart tend to lead to minor varations in scenes rather than major branches of the plot. Also, try not to pay too much attention to the details, as these charts are absolutely spoiler ridden!

That might sound (and look) like a mark against Late Shift, but to me, this made it a far smoother and overall, more digestible experience. The game is perfectly happy with you playing it once and never touching it again, and none of the endings felt overly abrupt or unsatisfying. If you do feel like playing through it again, choosing radically different decisions as some might do with, again, a Telltale game, the game does provide enough different scenarios and other variations to be satisfying to play through 2 or 3 times. While Bandersnatch may have failed in some respects, I immediately went out and added some of Wales Interactive’s other FMV games to my wishlist upon beating it. I’m just hoping I didn’t spoil myself by trying one of the better quality ones first. I suspect I might have.

Tell Me Why's scenery is as chill inducing as it is beautiful.
“Tell Me Why’s scenery is as chill inducing as it is beautiful.”

Speaking of adventure games, we also played through the next of Dontnod’s games, 2020’s Tell Me Why. Tell Me Why tells the story of two college aged siblings reconnecting to clean up and sell off their childhood home, naturally leading to some tying up of other loose ends concerning their family’s dramatic past. Tell Me Why is also a transgender story, although these elements are handled with a subtly that ultimately makes sure they’re not the focus of the story, despite being pivotal to it. Instead, the most intriguing parts of the story are about our characters’ unusual relationship with their mother, an artist who seemed to embrace fantasy as much as if not more than her children, and as usual with Dontnod games, the compelling setting; this time it’s a picturesque small town in Alaska.

As you might have guessed, this is a much more personal story than any of the Life is Strange games, focusing more on the interpersonal and slice of life aspects of those games. While there are some bigger plot elements, the stakes don’t ever feel quite as high as stopping a serial killer or being on the run from the authorities for a murder you didn’t commit, to use two very specific examples. Part of that has to do with so much of the game being about the past; examining nearly forgotten childhood memories, trying to find answers to questions that had been bouncing around for most of the protagonists’ lives, that sort of thing. The lack of urgency is a bit of a tonal shift, and if, like my partner, you’re the type of person who doesn’t find a lot of value in obsessing on the past, you might even fail to connect to the story entirely like she did.

Late Shift
“Unpacking emotional baggage in Tell Me Why.”

Gameplay-wise, Tell Me Why feels very much like it could be a part of the Life is Strange series, so if you’ve played any of those games then you pretty much know what to expect. Of course, even between games in the LiS series there are numerous mechanical changes, and Tell Me Why is no different. One big one is that the journal is gone, replaced with a book of children’s stories which is occasionally (and rather obtusely) used to solve puzzles. As is always the case in those games, the supernatural power your characters possess is new and different too. And yes, “characters”; you play as both siblings at different parts of the story. A rather huge departure is that I feel like exploration is a bit less of a focus in Tell Me Why. While mechanically it’s just as present as in any of the previous Dontnod adventures, I rarely found any point to it. Descriptions of items were less interesting and insightful, and it was rare to find anything useful in the world. For that reason I didn’t really engage with the collectibles this time around, which is a first for me in these games.

Still, I really enjoyed Tell Me Why, though the particular story and some elements of its storytelling mean it’s less likely to stick with me than any of the previous Life is Strange games. Regardless, after playing this I’m even more curious to check out Dontnod’s next and seemingly least popular adventure game, Twin Mirror. Soon enough, but for now I better get back to Halo Fest

The Black Mirror: Bandersnatch screenshot above was taken from a random image search result rather than my own Xbox. I found out the hard way that you apparently can’t screenshot the Netflix app. Shenanigans…