I started this week with my run through Wolfenstein 3D. In
my previous blog post I may have given the impression that I wasn’t fond of the
game. While I stand by the remarks that none of the environments are
particularly memorable, it is a competently-designed game and I am enjoying it.
The levels are designed in such a way that you almost always must clear most of
the level to get to the end. There are no skipping tough sections; if one part
is too hard, you need to figure out a way to deal with it. Bottle-necking
enemies in doorways usually works, but you also need to remember where in the
level the health pick-ups and ammo packs are. Your character doesn’t pick them
up straight away if he doesn’t need them but you’re likely to run in to a
difficult section later that will tank both your health and ammo, and you’ll be
glad that there are some pick-ups to run back to! The fact that there is no map
(that I’ve been able to see!) doesn’t help but it adds to the challenge of
memorising the levels.
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| They'll drop you in a couple of hits... |
I also enjoy using the Chain Gun. This is the most powerful
weapon in the game, but it has a problem with ammo conservation; it never uses
less than two bullets and any amount of sustained fire will drain your ammo
quickly. You’re therefore forced to fire in short bursts to take out the regular
guards and save your ammo for taking down the harder opponents like the SS or
Mutants. It’s a simple strategic element but is far more effective in making a
challenging game than simply giving you the chain gun and letting you run wild!
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| We worked this bit out eventually. |
Elsewhere, me and Kirsty played Epic Mickey 2 on the Xbox
360. This was a free download a few months ago, and we like Disney so we gave
it a go to see what it was like. We wanted to like it, we really did, but it’s
been a long time since I played a game in split-screen mode and it was very
tough for all the wrong reasons. The solutions to the puzzles aren’t
particularly intuitive, and the split screen restricts your field of view. We
got stuck at a point where you must use one character to throw the other over a
gap in the environment, and we weren’t very clear on what we had to do; it
sucked all the fun out of the game, and we called it a night.
I’ve carried on with Horus Heresy: Legions; there’s a new
event running now that requires you to fight a Titan. Most of the Imperial
decks are Space Wolves, and I find them a lot easier to use than Custodes, and
the Titan battles are easy enough, but the Player Versus Player modes are
always a challenge.
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| Wha...? I can't even... no. No. |
Finally, I came back to a game I hadn’t played in a while:
Open TTD. If you don’t know, this is an open-source remake of Transport Tycoon
Deluxe, one of the most memorable management games I think I’ve ever played, if
only for its Jazz soundtrack! It’s a free download and I’d more than recommend
giving it a go. The aim of the game is to build a transport network to supply
passengers and various commodities to towns around the environment. There is
also a competitive element to the game where you have other transport networks
attempting the same. Now, I can build the routes, but I’m not great at
micro-managing the train lines in order to get them to run efficiently, and no
matter how well the signal system should work, I always end up getting one
train or the other stuck. I doubt I’ll make enough money to win the game, but
apparently the game ends after 100 years of game time so if I get that far, that
will be an achievement!
Incidentally, it was my intention to record some footage of
this to put on YouTube. Unfortunately, I can’t get my capture software to work
with it, presumably because it doesn’t launch from either Steam or GOG. Still,
we can always follow the blog to keep up!
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