Beneath a steel sky rpg games 20185/10/2023 ![]() ![]() Yes, we got by without auto-maps in the olden days, but some would say we "got by" without the polio vaccine it's reasonable to expect a few perks these days. I actually had to restart the whole game at one point 'cos I couldn't find the way forward, and I'd forgotten where I'd already been. Mixing up the scenery might've helped have us devour the contents of an elementary school or Blockbuster Video as well as the nineteen decrepit industrial areas. I get why there isn't one - we're a barely-sentient pile of ground pork lost in a facility designed for humans rather than meat clouds, and we lack the limb dexterity to work the buttons on a GPS - but the level design isn't exactly intuitive to navigate. But I feel the game would've done better to more emphasize the stealthy predator approach there's a reason why there was never a bit in The Thing where a giant blob of bloodstained phlegm flung itself around a room, gaily spinning Kurt Russell around its head on the end of a fleshy lasso.Īnd one final, massive bleeding point to mention: I really wish there was a fucking map. I found the best way to deal with most enemy encounters was to burst in, grab whatever or whoever is closest to hand and, to use the technical term, "spaz the fuck out", at which point, physics does most of the work. Harold, you are basically 90% mouth! It should not be this difficult to get you to fucking eat something! I can fucking sit Harold on top of a pile of ripe torsos, and it's like introducing a new food to your fucking cat you have to get off and grab them with a tentacle in order to pull them to the mouth they were already right next to in the first place. ![]() Or, more likely, accidentally grab the end table next to them and spill everyone's martinis.īecause in contrast to your basic movement, directing your "Grab" ability is like Grandpa's first fishing trip after the stroke, at least with a controller. From there, you can enact hilarious cinematic moments by waiting for the humans to think you've gone and say things like, "Everything's going to be okay now." before you send out a grabby tentacle and yank them into the vents to help you rework the interior design. So you start out with 100% unhampered free movement, but that's because you're role-playing as the horror movie monster that the camera never gets a proper look at, lest the viewer notice that the prop department threw it together out of chamois leathers and tinned beetroot, and you need to be able to rapidly cram yourself down the nearest vent the moment your bipedal breakfast burritos pull out the flamethrowers. But movement looks a lot more complicated than it is Harold throws out tentacles to pull himself around, but he does it with such efficiency that all we're really doing is pushing in a direction to go in that direction, and it's about as complex and nuanced as using a giant sticky blood-smeared mouse pointer. Harold squelches and flutters around the various samey industrial environments like a pile of wet laundry descending a staircase, and it feels as viscerally satisfying as peeling dried glue off your hands. I guess we have to call it something let's go with "Harold". There's something hypnotic about the animation of what I hesitate to call the main character. So let's have one of our double-bills, starting with Carrion, a rather unique pixel-art Metroidvania that asks the question, "What if Prototype, but the main character didn't even keep up the pretense of being a human, and just lolloped around the environment as a great big cloud of teeth and pancreases, acquiring upgrades as you go that allow you to carry on into new areas, turning all the humans you find into carry-out?" Nothing better than a nice, fresh, hot indie game, except perhaps TWO nice, fresh, hot indie games standing on top of each other and putting on a big coat to sneak into a bar. This week on Zero Punctuation, Yahtzee reviews Carrion and Beyond a Steel Sky.
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