I Came, I Saw, I Discovered...and I Didn't Even get an Achievement!

I mentioned last week that I was spending a chunk of time trying to knock out the entire Discovery Mode tour in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey.  The good news is that I finished it!  That's right, all 30+ tours and every single discovery location--aaannnd, I didn't simply just click through stuff, I actually read the additional info!  Now, I'm someone who generally doesn't care about achievements, if you get them, great, but they aren't something I feel overly compelled to complete.  For some dumb reason I really wanted to get an achievement for completing all of Discovery Mode.  Spoilers...there is no achievement!  Once you've completed all the guided tours you get a "thank you" cutscene, and that's it.  On the plus side, I did learn many new details about life in ancient Greece and the design of the game--that's a good enough achievement, right?  It also made me want to go visit Greece and see some of these sights and artifacts (of course, not right now with pandemic and whatnot).  Mission-somewhat unsatisfactorily--accomplished.

Once I finished Discovery Mode, I spent a bit of time tooling around in normal Odyssey, but I haven't been feeling particularly compelled to stab another 10,000 people.  I've sort of been bouncing around with different games--spending some time playing PC Building Simulator, because I've made another goofy, internal goal of getting my shop to max level (I'm currently at level 26--only 5 more levels to go!).  When I get tired of building PC's I shift gears to the story generator/survival sim RimWorld.  RimWorld has seen massive improvements since I first started playing it in early access several years ago.  The improvements include making the process of escaping the planet much, much more difficult.  I'm hoping this time my poor colonists will make it...fingers-crossed.

My colony.  Note the ominous grizzly hanging around....

My newest colony started off with the basic colony setup--I opted for three colonists with decent technological skills.  In picking who my three colonists would be I tried for a normal balance of useful survival skills--early on I try to pick colonists with decent growing skills, at least one person with decent combat skills, and someone with medical skills.  The trickier part is keeping track of the individual personality quirks and picking people who aren't going to have truly devastating traits.  I only did a so-so job on this front and made one fairly stupid choice.  Two of my colonists have a trait called "gourmand" which means that when they're stressed, they will react by going on food binges.  These binges can put a serious dent in your food stores and fortunately I've managed to stay ahead of any serious shortages (it was really tricky in the beginning and my colonists were basically cooking enough to eat daily).  Calling the trait "gourmand" kind of makes me laugh because I've made it a core part of my desperate food recovery strategy to pillage the corpses of any animals killed by other animals.  So, I hope my stressed out colonists enjoy bingeing on the partially-eaten corpse of a yak or the leftover turtle that they scraped up.  Sounds delicious!

Naoko can't do dumb labor, but she's a good medic.

The worst choice I made in the early game was picking a colonist who is incapable of dumb labor.  The early part of the game requires a boat load of dumb labor--tons of gathering supplies, hauling, building, and scrapping to survive.  So, one of my colonists was basically a useless consumer of food...but, she is also the person with the highest medical skill.  I decided the best option for her would be to have her be the researcher--a job she was willing to do.

The colony has lurched along and managed to avoid any catastrophic events so far.  I really wanted to gain another colonist to help with labor, but failed to recruit any captives and, for some reason, any capsule crashes coincided with other events that kept me from rescuing people (once, a capsule crashed in the midst of a pack of manhunting ibexes and another time it crashed right before a raid).  Finally a random person decided to join my colony and it has helped a ton with getting more resources gathered.

There have definitely been some hiccups for my colony--a meteor crashed on my refrigerated food storage area and destroyed some of my food stockpile; two of the colonists got into a social fight which resulted in the loss of a leg for one of them (the good news is that I managed to level up crafting and crafted him a prosthetic leg which my medic could use to replace his destroyed leg)--the colonist with the lost leg also narrowly avoided being devoured by a pack of manhunting labrador retrievers due to his slow speed...that would have been a tragic death.

My colony will survive!  (MAYBE.)

In some other gaming news, if you're looking to pick up some free games, the Epic Store is currently offering Hitman (2016) and the three Shadowrun games for free!  I haven't played this iteration of Hitman, but was a fan of the classic games--I grabbed it.  The Shdaowrun games are turn-based, RPG, cyberpunk games that are fun games--I would recommend picking them up.  The second game in the series is particularly good.  (Here are links to my reviews for two of the Shadowrun games--apparently I never wrote up a review for Dragonfall which is definitely the best in the series--Shadowrun Returns Review,Shadowrun: Hong Kong Review)

Determined to Discover

My gameplay hasn't varied much since last week--I've made up my mind that I will do the entirety of the Discovery Tour in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey.  It's one of those weird goals in a game where you feel compelled to complete all of it for no clear reason.  I do actually like learning about the history and have been particularly compelled by the sheer amount of research, concept art, and random design elements that go into a game as large as Odyssey.  There are so many intricate little details embedded in the fictional world and you just don't take the time to notice them in the base game; I mean, there are thousands of people to stab, so why would you?

In a weirdly related side note, I stumbled across an article about an ongoing scholarly debate about whether or not ancient Greek sculptures were painted.  If you've ever seen a sculpture (or, more likely, a photograph) you're used to the appearance of white marble that has been dazzlingly carved into amazingly lifelike figures.  When you play Odyssey, one of the first things you notice (if you pay attention--but stabbing, right?) is the fact that the game mentions that statues in ancient Greece were likely painted.  Cities in the fictional Greek world are filled with beautifully painted sculptures--I had no idea it was such a controversy in the art world!  According to this article ("The Myth of Whiteness in Classical Sculpture"), the misconception about statues being nothing but blank marble has been perpetuated for a very long time.  Many statues, when unearthed, show evidence of pigments related to different types of materials used as paint during antiquity.  Unfortunately, these pigments decay very quickly after a statue has been recovered, so any that might still be clinging to the statues after thousands of years have to be recorded very quickly before they are lost.  The positive part though is that some scientists and art historians have figured out how to use certain types of modern technology to help them figure out what pigments might have been present on a statue.  Then, they can make plaster copies of the statues and paint them in an approximation of what they might have looked like in antiquity.  The end product is extremely colorful and detailed--a far cry from the pale, plain statuary that we're used to seeing.  There's even evidence that some statues had details that would have seemed gaudy and over-the-top when compared to a bare, white sculpture--vibrantly colored gemstones used as eyes, metallic paints (bling-bling!  Even the ancient Greek liked shiny, sparkly things), and a wide array of paint colors and hues.  (If you're more of a video person and don't want to read a long article--here's a short video that also explains this phenomenon)

Personally, I find the colorful statues to be much more engaging to look at and I am glad that the game designers for Odyssey decided to opt for painted statues.  It's amazing what you can learn from a video game!

Masterful PC Building....and, Occasionally Cleaning up Spilled Drinks

 I've spent most of my gaming time this past week checking out the newest expansion for one of my favorite simulation games, PC Building Simulator.  The E-Sports Expansion offers the chance for a new, more structured type of gameplay that still hinges on repairing, improving, and building PC's.  My favorite parts of the new expansion are the more character driven, personal/story-based elements that have been added in.

Your cell phone allows players to contact you with their requests.

If you're a fan of the base game you are probably familiar with career mode--you run a PC repair shop, customers e-mail you daily about jobs and then your task is to complete them accurately and in a timely manner.  In the E-Sports expansion you play the role of tech support for a budding e-sports team--your job is to keep the PC's of the team in tip-top/working shape to help the team win matches in different leagues.  Much of the core gameplay is similar--you still get jobs via e-mail, but the addition of a cell phone means that individual players can now (somewhat annoyingly) text you to make special requests....and a big part of the expansion is trying to manage ALL the requests because unlike in normal career mode where you're just trying to fulfill the job request from one customer, now you have to balance the demands of the team managers, the sponsors, and the individual players.  Balancing all these demands is very important because your work gets rated by all of those entities in a system of "likes," and the more likes you get the more opportunities will arise to take a new position with bigger, better teams.

The beginning office space is pretty plain.

The beginning of the expansion sees you taking a job with a one player team competing in the fictional game "Heart of Stone" (described as a competitive card game...hmmm, I wonder what they're referring to--winky face emoji).  You start off in a bare-bones, basic office space that looks like it's tucked away in some sort of storage area.  The good news is that even in your boring starting space you have access to fully upgraded tools and the entire catalog of components in the base game...that doesn't mean you can go bonkers and build amazing, wonder PC's, because each week you have a different budget and if you go over budget you will lose likes.  Teams compete in matches each Saturday, so throughout the week they will e-mail and text you requests.  At the beginning of the week the corporate sponsors also will establish what they would like to see--it could be something like all members on the team using a certain branded type of CPU or more mundane things like changing RGB lighting to reflect brand colors.  Generally the players on the team will want their PC's back relatively quickly so that they can practice.  Sometimes misfortune happens and PC's get damaged, sometimes players decide their PC needs some sort of upgrade or certain type of component or they get a wild hair and decide at the last minute that they want purple cables--the PC's inevitably find their way back and you fulfill the various demands before the end of the week.  Besides dealing with the individual PC's of the players on the team, there is also the opportunity to complete side jobs that appear via e-mail--sometimes the players have other PC's they want you to repair, or PC's of their friends, or the CEO of the team needs you to take a look at their personal PC....sheesh, they're really taking advantage of having a tech support person!  These jobs are generally a boon because you can earn extra money which can help you stay within the weekly budget (which generally isn't too difficult).

Players will send you side jobs to complete for extra cash.

The next new part of the gameplay takes place on competition day--you start backstage at the venue where the players compete.  Players will text you with last minute requests prior to the competition starting and you only have a limited amount of time to get the task done because there is a timer.  Sometimes a part gets broken and you have to quickly replace it; sometimes they decide you should overclock their CPU/GPU; sometimes they just want those damn purple cables...but you have to get it done quickly.  Once you've done whatever fixing/improving you've been assigned, the next task is to setup the PC's on stage which is also done on a timer.  If everything is in working order, the competition begins and you wait backstage--the clock ticks down and either the match ends, or something happens that requires you to complete another timed task--"oh noes, my hard drive crashed!"--*you scamper backstage to order another one and quickly replace it, re-install the needed game and then return to your place backstage.*  Once the match has ended you get a series of texts--each player gives you likes for how well you met their demands through the week (did you forget the purple cables?), the team gives you likes for fulfilling the manager requests, and the sponsors give you likes.  Your likes accumulate on your "LikedIn" app and at the end of the league (which varies throughout the game--the first league is only one week long, but the leagues for other games are longer--2-3 weeks) you can choose which team you want to work for based the number of "likes" you have earned.  You can choose to stick with the same team, but as the game progresses you change leagues to different games.  Each progressive league gets more complex as the number of players on the team increases from one at the beginning to four in the final league.

Moving up the career ladder means a super cool office.

As your record of masterful PC building becomes more recognized your office space gets much swankier.  It also means that the jobs and demands get more complicated--now you have to build the team PC's from scratch, they have to benchmark at high scores, and they need custom water cooling!  It can be a lot to figure out, but the PC's you build are amazing and much cooler than probably anything you will do in normal career mode.

Pros:

+Start the game with the entire catalog of components and upgrades unlocked.

+ New cell phone feature makes balancing demands more complicated.

+ Each team is made up of individual players with their own quirks and personalities and has its own story...and drama!  It is enjoyable to have some personality injected into the game--there is some of that in a few jobs in career mode, but it's a core part of the E-Sports Expansion.  Team drama also plays out through the jobs you do--players get jealous or resentful and want you to make their PC better than the rest of the team or they want a more unified approach.  It's fun to have these more story-based elements in the game.

+ The gameplay gets more complicated as you progress.  You start off with just a one player team and eventually work your way to managing a team of four.  The jobs get more complicated as you progress.

Each office has a special shelf for your collectibles.

+ Collectibles.  At the end of each league your team will send you memorabilia that appears on a special shelf in your office.  It's a fun little feature.

+ Multiple teams and career paths.  After you've finished the first league you can choose to stick with the same team (but in a different league) or to move to a different team.  So far I've played completely through two different teams and am working on a third team.  There's replayability value in the fact that you can restart your e-sports career and continue earning the collectibles for each team--gotta catch em' all!

+Build some wicked awesome PC's!  The jobs in career mode can be fairly bland, but by the time you've earned your way into the final league of the E-Sports Expansion you have a big budget and the ability to create truly powerful (and super expensive) PC's with tons of personal details.  Cheetah-fast CPU's!  Custom watercooled CPU's and GPU's!  Make it raaaaiiiin!

+ Timer adds pressure on competition days and provides some gameplay variety.

Cons:

- Bugs.  There are some documented issues with some of the content.  The one bug I ran into happened when I had a side job that required me to replace an M.2 drive with a specific brand/type of M,2.  The problem was that the requested M.2 drive wouldn't fit into the motherboard in the PC...and you couldn't replace the mobo.  So, I had to fail the job, which was a bit frustrating, but wasn't gamebreaking.  Others have reported issues with timers not appearing on competition days preventing them from progressing.  Some fixes need to occur and most likely will be in the coming weeks (since the game was only released like a week ago).  It's something to be aware of at this point.  It may also be a bug that on some missions it says to repair something and you can't simply replace the same part and the job will only complete if you use an upgraded part (there's one job where I struggled to figure out why it wouldn't complete and finally arrived at that solution after quite a bit of time).

- There is definitely replayability value in the various teams and career paths, but in order to fully access all the teams you have to go back and replay some of the same content over multiple times--there is a certain team that requires a higher number of likes and those can only be acquired by playing through the early leagues.  It gets a bit tedious.

Recommendation:

The E-Sports Expansion provides an improved PC building experience with more personality than the base game.  There are multiple career paths and teams to choose from and there are better opportunities to build works of PC art.  Despite the early bugs, I would heartily recommend the expansion to fans of the base game (you should really play the base game first though because the expansion expects you to use the full range of skills you learn in regular career mode).

Touring Ancient Greece and Building PC's

 I've basically played my most recent summer sale purchases to the point where I'm content and don't really feel the urge to start them up.  Instead, I've found myself merging back into some old familiar territory--namely that of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey and also into the world of virtually building PC's in PC Building Simulator.  These two games are completely different, but I can always find enjoyment in them.

The exact reasons that motivated me to want to dive back into AC: Odyssey are a bit murky--I felt the urge to play something large and complex but still familiar.  My feelings about the AC games are complicated; I like them, but I wouldn't say I love them (not the way I love Mass Effect).  Kassandra is a great character that I really like (and with the recent Ubisoft controversy--should have been the featured character) and  I adore the historically-based worlds that Ubi creates.  On the other hand, the map is completely bloated with locations and I find myself locked in this inner battle about my compulsive need to complete all of them versus the need to just enjoy playing the game and it becomes more about checking off  a list.  Eventually I undoubtedly start to feel bored with the pattern of doing a few story missions and then spending the bulk of my time mindlessly stabbing people to check off a goal.

Tour Ancient Greece as one of many characters.

One addition to Odyssey that has come out since I last played is Discovery Mode.  As a history nerd I enjoy the guided tours around different parts of Ancient Greece and learning about many aspects of life.  There are also little tidbits about the game design embedded in the tour so you can learn about what research and decisions were made about creating the world.  There are tons of locations to explore and many of the tours are themed--I completed one tour that was centered around Greek theater and plays--you can pick topics that interest you and find some cool details in the game world.  Another tour I completed was about the area around the Parthenon--I learned the myth of the founding of Athens and about all the different temples present in complex.  If you like learning about history and want a relaxed mode of play, check out Discovery Mode.

When I get tired of stabbing 10,676 people (that's a real number...sigh) I have inevitably found myself turning to the non-stabby world of PC Building Simulator.  It's always interesting to log back because of the fact that they are regularly adding new components and new companies.  One of the more interesting additions is the ability to create custom water cooling systems.  I also decided to try to knock out some of the achievements that I hadn't managed to snag--I finally landed a 5-star rating, which is something that had been difficult to do.  The jobs at the higher levels of career mode have gotten more complicated and include overclocking.  I am unsure if custom water cooling comes into play in career mode at all (apparently it does at some point, but I haven't received any other than adding AIO coolers).  My little shop now bears my name (thanks to finally being able to own 30% of the company and removing uncle Tim's name) and I have to decide if I want to continue trying to level up my shop (there are still parts to unlock).

In exciting PC Building Simulator news, the first DLC launched earlier this week.  The ESports Expansion adds in a new gameplay mode that takes you out of your shop and into the esports spotlight.  Your new role is managing the many technological needs of a budding esports in team.  The expansion promises to provide variety in gameplay that differs from career mode but that still involves using your PC building skills.  I recently snagged the expansion and am looking forward to taking a turn at the madcap world of esports.

Highway Out of Hell--Hades

I've been saving the (surprising!) best of my summer sale purchase games for last.  My record with roguelikes has been very mixed--sometimes I hate them (Spelunky), sometimes they are alright (Dead Cells),and sometimes I can enjoy them to some extent (Slay the Spire--which I would hesitate to call a true roguelike since it is focused on deckbuilding).  That mixed record has made me fairly cautious about roguelikes--I'm just not sure I truly enjoy them.  It was with this reluctance that I viewed the newest game by a developer who has consistently rolled out unique games that I have enjoyed--Supergiant Games.  Would it be a good idea to buy a roguelike...even if it was from a dev that I trusted to create something enjoyable?  I decided to take a chance on Hades (which is currently in early access) mostly because of my past experiences with the games by Supergiant (Bastion, Transistor, Pyre).

So, what exactly is Hades?  I would describe it as a mix of roguelike, ARPG, and story based elements.  The story is based in the Greek underworld (if you're a fan of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey you should have a fairly good understanding of the gods and mythology related to ancient Greece) and features Zagreus, the son of the god of the underworld, Hades, who is on a mission to escape from the confines of the multi-layered underworld (for reasons that are spoiler-y so I won't get into them--let's just say he's searching for someone else who has managed to escape somehow).  The escape is where the bulk of the gameplay is focused--Zagreus has to fight his way from room to room, level to level, until he finally reaches the surface.  The roguelike elements come into play because each level is made up of a series of connected rooms which change with every escape attempt.  At the end of each level, Zagreus faces a boss-like opponent (which, depending on the level, can somewhat vary) before he can move onto the next area.  Ultimately, Zagreus will find himself failing in his escape attempts and waking up and climbing out of the River Styx only to go through the entire process again...and again...and again.

Luckily, the gameplay doesn't just consist of the process of trying to navigate the gauntlet of enemy filled rooms and boss fights over and over.  Unlike some other roguelikes which mainly focus on the constantly shifting nature of the gameplay, Hades also features some storybased and RPG-like elements.  There are numerous characters who populate the underworld and when Zagreus inevitably finds himself back in the home chambers after dying, he can choose to talk to and learn about the many denizens trapped in the underworld.  Some of them are notable figures from Greek mythology--Hades himself presides over the underworld and is determined to stop Zagreus from escaping; Hypnos is the god of sleep who, between naps, is charged with keeping the various shades who populate the underworld in order; Achilles, the Greek hero, stands guard over the chambers of the underworld--and there are many, many more!  The more you stop to talk to these characters, the more you learn about them and how they ended up stuck in the underworld.  As you spend more time playing and make more progress, more characters are introduced.  Another fun part is the fact that you can find nectar, a kind of special gift, and give it to characters to improve your relationship with them.  As the relationship improves characters will gift Zagreus with trinkets that grant him special abilities and that can be swapped out at the beginning of each level.

The RPG-like elements come in as Zagreus collects multiple types of currency during escape attempts--one of the currency types is called "shadow," and it can be used to purchase ranks of special abilities.  These special abilities give Zagreus various improved skills to use in combat and, unlike other roguelikes will make him more powerful and make the combat easier as you progress.  These talents could help Zagreus find better buffs (called "boons") or even give him a form of extra lives.  There are two different types of mirror talents and you can change them about freely at the beginning of each escape attempt.

The combat in Hades reminds me of that in ARPG's, but I wouldn't classify the gameplay as an ARPG.  Zagreus faces many different types of enemies in each room and has to defeat them to progress--there are numerous enemies, but not a shower of random loot to sort through.  Initially Zagreus is limited to only a couple of different weapon types, but as he progresses several other types unlock--there are melee weapons and ranged weapons and each type has a couple of different variations.  No matter which type of weapon you pick each has a main attack, a special attack, and a "cast."  This is also somewhat ARPG-like because you have a sort of basic set of abilities.

Navigating the rooms of the various levels of the underworld is something that has also been cleverly designed--each room offers a certain reward at the end--some might offer "boons" from specific Greek gods which will provide a buff or special ability (for example, some of my favorite buffs come from Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and reveling.  His buffs will imbue attacks with an effect called "hangover" which places a stacking DoT on enemies); other rooms might offer Charon's obols which are a type of currency which can be used to purchase health, boons, or other items when players find rooms with Charon's shop (there are usually multiple locations on each level); and there are multiple other varieties of rooms.  Part of the fun is the fact that in each room players are generally faced with multiple doors which show what type of reward lies behind it and then you get to choose.  As you progress you can also use special currency to purchase fountains (which restore health) which have a chance of appearing on certain levels.  Special characters also have a chance of appearing on certain levels and giving Zagreus powerful buffs.  It's all very random though, so you can't count on getting a fountain every run or finding one of these special characters.

As Zagreus progresses he will accumulate numerous powerful boons from various gods which help him become more powerful.  The downside of this is that the combat only gets harder the closer that he gets to the surface.  The final bosses on the last two levels are a real doozy, so he needs all the help he can get.

I have been oddly surprised by how much I've enjoyed playing Hades.  Most roguelikes frustrate or bore me within about 10 hours, but I've played Hades happily for 42 hours.  I've enjoyed the fact that the focus isn't simply on the repetition of escaping and that there are characters to interact with and learn about.  The fact that a lot of variety has been provided in the gameplay--choosing which room you want, finding boons from various gods which provide different abilities--really helps a game that is based around the core concept of doing the same thing over and over instead stay interesting and fresh.  I also think the idea of providing talents/abilities helps noobsauces like me be able to actually progress and not hit a wall of difficulty.  After many, many escape attempts, I was finally able to defeat the final boss and make it to the surface (huzzah!).  Fortunately, even after you've escaped there are still reasons to want to keep starting over--the "pact of punishment" places specific restrictions on gameplay and will reset the special items (used to purchase weapon upgrades and other improvements) that bosses drop.  Players can determine the number of special modifiers they want to place and each rank makes combat more and more difficult--but will reset the boss drops, so is necessary to keep getting the items you need.

Even though Hades is still in early access, I have had a lot of fun killing poor Zagreus over and over.  I think it's definitely worth picking it up and only shows promise to be even better in full release.  My only hesitation would be for people who are super-hardcore roguelike players--I think Hades doesn't lean heavily into being a skill-based, repetition fest and has elements that makes the gameplay easier with time.  If you're too leet....stick to the roguelikes for hardcore peeps.  Also, if you're not the type of person who likes repetition and doesn't enjoy things that can get a bit grindy...maybe think it over a bit.

I didn't mention the music, but it's Supergiant, so you can count on an amazing soundtrack featuring the familiar voices from past games.