Ape Out for PC; Image Credit: igf.com
Ape Out (2019)
It usually isn’t a good sign when a two word title (a mere six letters) provides the entire plot of a game. Note, too, that the even more apt Ape Escape was already taken. But what Ape Out lacks in literary merit it makes up for in music, art, and a rapturous sense of flow. From a top-down view you control a righteous orange ape, fleeing down a skyscraper, across a dockyard, through a jungle. The art is bold, minimalist; an attempt to make an interactive Saul Bass credit sequence. Each level, usually only a minute or two in length, is a rat’s nest of guarded routes built around key themes, landmarks, and gates, but procedurally assembled afresh each attempt (think Spelunky) to keep you spontaneous.
Everyone you meet will try to shoot you, but you can grab them for a quick bullet shield or just splash them like a burst of paint across the canvas of your egress. Your actions are always synced to the games frenetic percussive jazz soundtrack, arguably the true star of the game. You won’t get new abilities, just new threats in new environments, but the game is short and satisfying enough during its four albums (each its own world) that I never once got bored. In fact, this was my favorite under-5-hour game of 2019.
Score: 8.5 / 10
–Brian
My Time at Portia (2018)
Have you ever loved one game so much that you tried to find games that were similar? After 100+ hours in the world of Stardew Valley (probably my favorite game), I wanted to try something new that evoked the same feelings of serenity and happiness. In my research, I found My Time at Portia.
At the core, My Time at Portia is a crafting/simulation game. You play a builder who has been given a piece of land outside the town of Portia by your father. Over time, you get to know the townspeople, the resources available in the area, and capabilities of your workshop. As you progress in the game, you unlock new areas, more complex builds, and specialized machinery.
My Time at Portia is a game that requires you to dabble in a little bit of everything: fetch quests, dungeons, mining, relationship building, and, of course, crafting. While there is a plot – you are working to be the highest rated builder in the town with a few other curveballs – the progression of the game is quest-driven. Most building contracts must be fulfilled within a certain number of days and there are relationship-related consequences if you do not manage to complete them. Because of this, the time management element of the game is crucial.
Much like in real life, building each piece of a larger construct takes time and each machine can only work on one thing until it is complete. This means that a more complex building recipe may require several days of in-game hours and careful queueing to hit a deadline. This could have been painful, but the game was always very clear how long each component would take to build, which resources were needed, and the machines required. I quite enjoyed the puzzle of prioritization that occurred when trying to work on multiple contracts at once!
My Time at Portia lacked a little for me in the relationship building portion of the game. Over time, people you do quests for regard you more favorably. This means they’re more likely to drop by with some free stuff or ask you to “play” or “date.” The playing options tended to be afterthought minigames that involved seesaws, shooting ghosts, or drawing pictures in the sand. Dates were similar, but involved more talking, giving gifts, and eating together. I honestly didn’t see the point. (Sounds about right. –Brian). Sure, it’s good to have a system where you can spend more time with NPCs, but it never really came together for me.
That said, Portia did have a very strong take on a classic minigame. Once a week, you could stop by the guildhall to help judge objects. They would display one perfectly-made item and another with flaws. You could rotate the items in any direction to find all of the flaws (usually three) before a timer ran out. The rotation aspect made this a much more interesting version of spot-the-difference as you could only see some issues from certain angles. It was also a great way to get items and experience to increase your builder rating.
In the end, My Time at Portia was not my “the next Stardew Valley“, but it was a pleasant way to relax with a variant.
Rating: 7/10
-Kelley
Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle (1993)
During the height of the adventure game craze, LucasArts reigned supreme. They built their brand on zany humor, off-kilter logic, and a compassionate freedom from fail-states. Growing up I was a big fan of Grim Fandango, Sam and Max Hit the Road, and even The Dig. So I was excited to put on my retro-hat and give Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle a try, since I’d missed that one in my youth.
DotT stars three misfits: conflict-averse nerd Bernard, heavy-metal groupie Hoagie, and crazy med-student Laverne. They’re stranded in separate time periods of the same mansion while trying to help their mad scientist friend stop a sentient purple tentacle from world domination. Does that sound promising? Would it hold up?
Allowing for the clunky interface and dated pointing-and-clicking, the puzzles are some of the best in the genre. The humor, however, is a mixed bag. I found the villain to be the only successful character, with the rest being one-dimensional and either too cheesy or too gross. The jokes are too indiscriminate and the laughs too insistent. A lot of them don’t land or get in the way of furthering the story and progressing the game. I liked trying to solve DotT’s creative obstacles, but immersing in the game felt like visiting a carnival funhouse that was presumably more fun at a younger age and in a bygone era.
Score: 6 / 10
–Brian
This game was a struggle for me. From the get-go, I found the characters repulsive and the humor immature. Were some of the puzzles amusing? Yes – giving joke teeth to George Washington made me smile slightly. Overall, though, I had a difficult time seeing Laverne, Bernard, and Hoagie as anything more than lame caricatures who got up to some pretty stupid antics. Long Live Purple Tentacle.
Score: 3 / 10
–Kelley
For more in this series see 2019 Trios.
Significant Gamers 