Let's Play Snowdrift

Not all games have to be made by big gaming houses or producers in order to have quality. Snowdrift is an example of a game that has a good premise and a decent antagonist, a creepy vibe and actual gameplay mechanics worth indulging. It is, unfortunately, limited by its indie origins and lack of a budget, but Snowdrift has the core of being something interesting.

It stars Sam, the lone survivor in a world being overcome by a progressive darkness. Each day there's less and less sunlight, and Sam, being a survivalist, has to hunt the woods for berries and rabbit to eat, water to drink, and wood to keep his fire lit. Should the fire in his home ever go out over night, the darkness will set in entirely and insanity will take over, ending Sam's journey. However, if you can survive long enough, there's a chance you may be able to overcome this nightmare.

Time is your greatest enemy. You have to be back home before dark sets in. There's a lamp you can use to light your way in the forest, but it has a limited amount of fuel, and will eventually run out as the days and weeks roll by. However, you can't just stay locked up in your home. Sam has a thirst and hunger meter that he needs to fill. Bushes throughout the forest provide berries, but they only satisfy a little of his hunger. To really fill his stomach you'll need to hunt rabbit, but they usually only appear during the night, which means having to use the limited life of your lamp.

Each action requires stamina, and once it's used up you won't be able to take any actions and Sam will move slower. This really hampers him when darkness is approaching and you need to get back home. If you've forgotten to put wood on the fire when nighttime comes, you won't be able to chop wood for it if you're out of stamina, which is a guaranteed way to die overnight. In the same way, thirst will hamper you, but it's easier to fill your thirst bar. There's a pool not far from Sam's home and you have a bottle you can fill.

As the days roll by, Sam will experience auditory and visual hallucinations, hear strange knockings and even be visited by demonic entities. There's a way to survive all this, but I'd be spoiling the game if I told you how. It's got some good scares, though, so if you have an hour of time to invest, give an indie developer a try and let Snowdrift put the fear of the dark back in you.

Let's Play Sword & Sworcery

Alright, so enough reading. This is my official review of Sword & Sworcery. I know, I know, it's been out for a while. But if you haven't played it, check the review, see the clips, hear the amazing narration. I kid I kid.

Let's Play Sword & Sworcery Part 02

For those of you who tuned in to part one of Let's Play Sword & Sworcery, I now present the exciting conclusion.

I really did enjoy this game, although I think it plays stronger on the iPad. I say that only because the way it uses the iPad really is genius, and there's a joy to playing this game with headphones on and enjoying the music. But the interaction you get from having to flip the iPad and squeeze and pinch to manipulate the environment give it an added touch.

I think I'll do a proper, full length review of the game to amend this Let's Play, so expect a final post concerning Sword & Sworcery.

Let's Play Sword & Sworcery Part 01

It's rare when a story, in any medium, invokes the most primitive images of humankind in order to convey its tale. Whether in books, movies or games, characters are normally fleshed out and plots made intricate and detailed. However, sometimes the best stories are the ones that allow us to fill in the gaps. Journey, the most highly downloaded game on the Playstation Network, is one of those games. However, Sword & Sworcery also ranks among them, and rightfully so. A barebones plot detailing the adventure of a warrior Scythian in search of Gold Trigons, the Megatome and the destruction of the Gogolithic Mass, it is a tale pitting protagonist against antagonist without going into much detail.

While some people might think that a weakness of the game's story, it's actually quite a strength. Fairytale stories, such as the Chronicles of Narnia, would allude to larger worlds without actually exploring them. This allowed the reader to populate that world with their own imaginations. Sword & Sworcery does the same, allowing you to venture out and explore a world, seeking the destruction of an ethereal foe. Why? It does not matter. It only matters that the foe is mostly a symbol, one conveying death and destruction. Why root for the protagonist? It does not matter. All that matters is she is a symbol, one representing life and protection of the innocent.

There is a game here, of course, that involves more than just wandering about. It is like an adventure game, in that there is a world to explore and inventory items to use, but this is applied minimally. Then again, so is the combat system, which takes cues from Mike Tyson's Punchout and asks the player to respond to intricate timing and gestures initiated by the various foes of the world. Finally, there are search games involving cuing up musical notes in order to invoke Sylvan Sprites and forward the plot. These might seem like disparate elements, but in the world of Sword & Sworcery they combine elegantly, and allow you to feel involved in it. As the Scythian, you do all this, stumbling on hints of lore and legend that fascinate and propel you forward.

It is definitely a game worth playing, especially now that it has transitioned from the iPad to PC. However, this is a Let's Play! So I kindly invite you to watch my playthrough of Sword & Sworcery. This is part one of two parts of coverage. Let's do this.

Let's Play: LOOM

Most adventure gamers have played the big ones from Lucas Arts and Sierra. King's Quest, Space Quest, Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle. The oldies but goodies that spawned franchises and became popular in the general public. However, a few games never gained the same sort of notoriety or love that these franchises did, and one damned good game that doesn't get brought up enough is LOOM.

Partly inspired by the ballet Swan Lake, with music to match, LOOM is a Lucas Arts classic that defies the rest of the Lucas Arts catalog. Rather than a whimsical, humorous adventure full of inventory puzzles and snarky dialogue, LOOM is actually a quite serious fantasy story. Limited by the technology of the era, it still managed to develop a rather dark fantasy with serious overtones and a threatening antagonist.

In it, Bobbin Threadbare lives among the Weavers guild. A group of mystics capable of weaving reality using musical tones, the story is set on Bobbin's 17th birthday. On that day, the guild is transformed into swans that depart through a rift in reality, forcing Bobbin to chase after them. In good adventure game fashion, there are a number of puzzles he'll have to solve along the way, but not in the traditional method.

Instead of combining inventory items, various environmental puzzles have to be solved by playing the correct notes and "weaving" reality. For instance, if you have a song to twist something and need to untwist a bottle top, you would play the song backwards. That would "untwist" the bottle top. In another instance, if you needed to paint something a certain color, you would play the notes that would dye the fabric. Playing the notes backward would undye it.

Along the way, you travel through a fantastic realm full of guilds. Glassmakers guilds, Shepherds, Guilds, Smithies guilds and Cleric Guilds all fill this wonderful world of brilliant art and fantastic characters. Though the technology limited the sort of depth you could get out of the characters you would meet, a proper, somewhat tragic story was still told in which Bobbin crossed the world looking for his lost family and answers behind his birth. Thankfully, the game is now available here on Steam, in the CD version that included full voice acting and higher definition graphics.

However, if you're just looking for a good Let's Play to see the story unfold, please feel free to check out my videos and my YouTube channel for lots of Let's Play goodness.