After the success of Steam in the field of publishing indie games platformoderzhateli painted together in the love of the indie scene, promise to support independent publishing indie games and even include a little game in the starting lineup the next consoles, however, after the U.S. PlayStation 4 is already current, generation. Actually, a small platform puzzle Contrast and became one of the starting projects for Play Station 4. For players, the CIS countries, which will have to wait for PS4 launch until November 29, the game is already available on other platforms, including on Steam.

Contrast – this is a game of light and shadow. A simple three-dimensional platformer that flick of the wrist turns into a two-dimensional. Such a decision we have already seen in several projects, unlike Contrast – to use lights and shadows to create and manipulate level elements.

The game’s plot, despite some pretentiousness and theatrical environment, is very simple. Teenage girl Didi worried about his father, who seems to have got into some kind of scam, and wants to help him reconcile with his mother and returned to the family. She wakes up in her room polusumrake and sent to the night city streets, filled with shadows, fragments of dreams and memories, to make things right. Didi company is its imaginary friend, girl-acrobat with the telling name Don (Dawn), which can turn into a shadow and travel between sleep and more deep sleep between 3D and 2D.

Contrast mesmerizing combination of breathtaking art deco atmosphere, films noir, coffee and light Shantanu madness. There are no people, except Didi and Don, only silhouettes on the walls, but they communicate with each other and with the girl – is overshadowed by its daily memories. The entire game world – it’s literally a few blocks around the house Didi rolled into a tangle of quaint streets, terminating nowhere. In general the whole chamber and Contrast very cozy, filled with rays of light and filled with music and warmth. 

Basis of the gameplay – light and authors work with him masterfully, good engine Unreal 3 allows. For the sake of simplicity, there is no perception of the penumbra, but those are the rules of the game. But moving the light sources can literally change the level and find new ways. Unfortunately themselves platform puzzle game is not very complicated, some special call for a player is not here – almost all of you will pass the first time. 3D to 2D transition levels only in strictly defined areas on flat surfaces illuminated by light, so figure out what to do in each subsequent time is not difficult. 

Contrast in the original puzzles and so little, and one of the levels, Shadow Theatre, generally literally verbatim quote from Limbo . It is certainly one of the best role models, but I would like to see all the individual works of the authors. 

Contrast short game. Three acts can run for 2.5-3 hours, even with search collectibles and secrets. Final stories are so predictable that even insulting. The visual style and mood of the game promises some mystery, detective story or drama, and as a result we get a little banal family history, a place that in some lowly daytime drama. A pity. 

However, despite some incompleteness and innuendo, Contrast is very sweet and cute, but the idea behind the gameplay, although not disclosed to all one deserves to meet her. If not now, then during the New Year’s sale on Steam.

The post Contrast: A Game of Shadows appeared first on Raqwe.

Do you know what can make a dedicated team for seven years? Game, against which Diablo III will look like a silly joke. It is a game Path of Exile.

“Free action / RPG / MMO» – nowadays it is almost a sentence because the audience is a strong bond between the above formula with low quality Korean grindilki with depressing microtransactions in which it is impossible to move a step without paying a dollar or pre. That is why recently got rid of the prefix «beta» Path of Exile from the New Zealand Grinding Gear Games is truly a unique phenomenon.

Like any high-quality action / RPG, Path of Exile just had to be developed with an eye to the permanent leader and unquestioning king of the genre. Here are just a Grinding Gear Games understand one simple thing that the creators of the majority of template «Diablo-killer” Ever wonder – is not enough to copy Diablo, without raisins your project broke. Even the gift.

However, the first few minutes with the game does not bode well. Beginning as a part of the story and, in general, New Zealanders frankly merged. Choose between six classes initially available (another will open after the passage), where absolutely no revelations, and it all comes down to the scheme of the warrior / mage / archer and their derivatives, determined with the league, read the level of difficulty, and more … The hero, having survived a shipwreck, finds himself on the shore of the land of others (well, as much as possible already, eh?) surrounded by the walking dead. Immediately nearby is a fortified camp, in other words, point of delivery quests and receiving packs of mobs showered with waste materials. Timid attempts to get clear answers to three main questions: “Who?”, “Where?” And “Why?” Success, alas, is not crowned. Stories of non-player characters is very steep, vague and, most importantly, quite boring, so I have to forget about the global scene and go to solve more pressing problems – to find supplies for the camp, the necromancer to calm, to resolve the issue with the sirens, to deal with the bandits, find a way into the next act eventually. 

Then it all goes off the beaten track – the monsters are killed, going first, good-for-nothing, armor and weapons in general do not portend disaster. Exactly to the moment, as the character gains a new level and you open your skill tree. After that, you may receive the strong desire to close the game and never it does not run. The thing is that at first glance an unwieldy and confusing system of talent developers assembled in Final Fantasy X, and there are hundreds of skills. But, as in the case of the Sphere Grid, after a close acquaintance you know that before you a very flexible and easy-to-use system of character development and all that is in role-playing system and is the highlight of the game. 

With the basic characteristics in the Path of Exile’s simple. It is the strength, agility and intelligence, and they go up automatically to give a level. But the skills are divided into passive and active. Passive – the same talent tree, and here, too, everything is familiar, the character gets one skill point per level. But the situation is more complex with active because they contain precious stones to be forged into gear and that, among other things, have their own levels and pumped with use. Moreover, the slots in the objects are often associated with each other that allows you to combine skill. So, in a few clicks, the usual blow to the area begins, for example, beat opponents with lightning, and at the same time restore the character’s life. 

And in the game, there are about a dozen agents that allow modify the found objects, change their quality, rarity increase, add, or change their characteristics, or the color of jacks, communication between terminals and so on. In other words, opportunities to create a unique character Path of Exile will give odds to anyone. But the character is a character, and with the gameplay, what? 

On the gameplay is all right if you’re a fan dungeon crawl. The scheme was simple – get a job, exit out of the city, kill monsters, get loot and periodically return to the seller to shake off the collected good. Upon meeting one-on-one with the player monsters completely exposed, so they prefer to go huddling in the pack, which is usually at the center of a particularly strong representative of the local fauna, granting wards some nasty freezing property like bumps, Magic Resistance, and so on. Bosses are rare, but memorable part runs from the town to the place of the untimely death of your character. 

Another distinctive feature of the game – a complete lack of money. In Grinding Gear Games have decided to build a pure grinding loot into an absolute, making things local currency. Found swag you give the seller for the previously mentioned reagents for modifying objects, the same reagents used for purchases of equipment required. Interestingly arrived with bottles of life and mana. Now you find an empty container, which is automatically updated after killing a certain number of enemies.

Many call the Path of Exile «correct Diablo» and even after a brief acquaintance with the game are difficult to disagree, because it looks like a real Diablo much more than that in 2012 released the Blizzard, proudly are numbered 3. Path of Exile is a dark, brutal, bloody and not very friendly to newcomers game. And looking at the location it is clear from the ears grow – plains, forests, and destroyed cities reminiscent of the Diablo II, and dark dungeons and catacombs recall the eerie atmosphere of the first part and that’s fine. 

Unfortunately, Path of Exile is not ideal. Besides the problems with the plot, which could have been and gone through, it is clear that the status of the beta game will deliver only formally and developers have much to do, because at this stage a lot of things in the game exists without a specific purpose, as PvP or the ability to combine in the guild. On the other hand, Grinding Gear Games and did not stop there, adding new content to the game and arranging original marathons on pumping with specified conditions, lasting from a couple of tens of minutes to a few weeks. 

In exchange for the same, oddly enough, do not ask for anything. Game can be completed without paying a penny and without feeling any discomfort, as most micro-transactions can buy purely cosmetic improvements – pets, unique skins for weapons and armor, new animation. With a strong desire to spend money on, you can only additional cells to the repository if you do not have to miss four base and gildiyskoe repository, but the amounts are humane – from two to twenty dollars.

In short, all those who accused the Diablo III in a cartoon, the combat system is primitive and general okazualivaniya series, you can safely leave the Sanctuary behind and move to Reyklast, you’ll like it here.

The post Path of Exile – for those who like harder appeared first on Raqwe.

Strange things these indie games. Eldritch at first glance it seems sheer trinket not worthy of special attention in the already rather painfully familiar Minecraft-style, but suddenly finds an almost perfect time machine that could take you 20 years ago, in the era of DOS, IBM PC-AT and Alone in the Dark. Not that funny crafts five years ago, and the original 1992, which “Guinness World Records” respectfully calls the First Ever 3D Survival Horror Game.

As in the Alone in the Dark, in Eldritch over your shoulder looms the invisible spirit of the father of horror stories about ancient monsters, and many creatures born gloomy genius of Howard Phillips Lavkrafa you meet in person, while wandering through the corridors of the dark dungeons.

Traditions are met – you come into a mysterious library. Rows of racks go up, tangled maze of stairs connects the floors. Open book on the table, and as usual you do not remember either of themselves or the events that led you to this strange place. One thing is clear – in order to get out of the library, you must find the three books, the artifact is a gateway to another world – a dungeon, filled with deadly traps, monsters and mysterious immortal statues of ancient gods.

Twin brothers David and Kyle Pittman, having worked in large companies (such as David managed to light up in the credits of BioShock 2 and The Bureau: XCOM Declassified ), decided to return to the indie development and mix in Eldritch three seemingly bad suitable one another ingredient – the mechanics Rougelike RPG, the gameplay 3D stealth-shooter and works of Lovecraft. 

In Eldritch, as befits a good horror works, remains unchanged just a library, dungeons, which lead to three books portal is generated anew each time. Three-dimensional multi-level labyrinth, like a piece of cheese cut up passages, tunnels, ladders. You need to down, as far as possible, that is where the transition to a different part of the cave and at the bottom you will find an artifact that opens next book. That’s just to go down, sometimes have to go around, getting up a few floors up, etc. 

At first everything seems to be a piece of cake. The first world goes over 15 minutes, you can tear the monsters with your bare hands, filling the pockets of coins, artifacts, keys to all the locks and other useful things. Dashing raid in the same style on the second dungeon ends in death and rebirth in the library. The pockets are empty, the characteristics of reset, the weapon remains on the corpse. The second, third, fifth, etc. attempts to terminate the same. Dungeon mercilessly. Now here came the immortal monsters that can only be stunned for a while, come to life behind your back statues of people, lizards and other nice animals. 

At this moment becomes Eldritch stealth. Now do not all rush to the enemy, more logical to ignore them and sneak behind him. It is necessary to protect the keys, move stealthily peek around the corner and try to do as little as possible to catch the eye Aborigines. In the second world, you’re stuck for a long time – the cycle of death and rebirth only spurs try again and again. What are you waiting “in the pages of” thirds of the book let it remain a mystery. 

The craze for old school graphics on hand Eldritch. The conventionality of scenery allows your imagination. And now a bunch of polygons becomes a deadly ghost and pixelated textures – dripping with moisture in the walls of the dungeon. Visually Eldritch really like Alone in the Dark, that’s only 20 years ago it was the most advanced at that time 3D-graphics.

Eldritch, like many indie games of recent years – it’s an experiment with the old visual style and new combinations of gameplay. The game can entertain and surprise at the time, but it still lacks something to perfection. Some are generated dungeons and session still runs deep enough.

The post Eldritch: we must go deeper appeared first on Raqwe.

The Stanley Parable – last mod for Half-Life 2, and now the independent game – instantly blew up the Internet. All her declaration of love. And expensive blockbusters to the plot, like BioShock: Infinite or The Last of Us, at the sight of Stanley suddenly lost and huddle in a corner. And for good reason.

Stanley (Stanley) simple office worker. Every day he comes to a close gray little room, sits down at the computer and regularly presses buttons on the keyboard, following the instructions on the screen. Stanley does not understand the meaning of his work, though she gives him a purpose and makes you happy. When these buttons are pressed, it means that someone needs!

But once things go awry.

The computer is silent, silently blinking cursor. The building is a strange silence reigns. Looking out from his little room, Stanley sees in office kubiklah no one. Here and there on the floor scattered papers. Spot at the table in a hurry flowed out of the overturned coffee cup …

“Stanley has decided that all went into the meeting room” – suggests the voice-over narrator. 

Stanley – is you. And all the others, can indeed be assembled in the meeting room? You start your way around the office, could not help looking into all the corners and checking screens office computers. And pretty soon go out into the small hall, on the far side of which are two doors.

“Stanley went to the door on the left” – the narrator said.

At this point, The Stanley Parable catches you on the hook. 

Of course, you can go into the left door. In general, do all that said impregnated easy snobbery background voice – so you get to the first, most obvious ending. But very quickly want to break the system. Do not go into the left door, and to the right. Do not get up, and go down the stairs. Go to the end of the corridor, and not turn back, as it asks “commentator”.

The more you svoenravnichaete, the more nervous narrator trying to fine-tune your story to your actions. The more he was nervous, so you are breaking the rules of gambling. The narrator goes astray, the story begins again and again, changing on the fly, something fun, something frightening. Are you looking for new ways to destroy it. 

The Stanley Parable – an interesting experiment with the game narrative. It is absolutely impossible to explain in detail – because it would have to part zaspoylerit prepared surprises and spoil the fun of opening them. And he did not fit into the definition of the genre, which confirms its originality.

Stanley listens to the voice in your head and spinning like a squirrel in a cage, trying to find a way out of the maze of office. But instead finds only additional meanings of what is happening to him. He participated in some kind of experience? He was the victim of an evil genius fun? He dreams of a strange dream? Stanley exist at all? 

At some point, the familiar voice of the commentator is suddenly replaced by another – a pleasant female. “You can not win” – you say – “Press Escape and select the menu item Quit. There is no other way out, stop! “. But you can not – so fascinating and unpredictable this experiment.

PS If you are not on good terms with the English wait Russian subtitles, which should appear in the game from day to day.

The post The Stanley Parable – linear story appeared first on Raqwe.

Night. Old wooden house in the middle of thick, black forest. Lone wake of tenants weird sound – have to bypass all the rooms one by one, checking doors and windows, wincing at the creak of the floorboards, rustling, whispering strange and look waiting for the dawn, which alone can banish away all night terrors. Or maybe this is all just a dream? How, then, to wake up for real?

Russian studio Ice-Pick Lodge has long proved itself the creator of unique projects to successful attempts to provide computer games as a special genre of art – and not just as a form of entertainment or sport. For this reason, do a review of such games is quite difficult: each of them contains several layers of meaning, and obviously set to the set of possible interpretations, so that anyone can make something out of his acquaintance with “More. Utopia, “” Tension “and even festive and cheerful “Eureka” . New game “ice ax” – is no exception. Perhaps a cursory glance will not find in the “Tuk-tuk-tuk” practically nothing but unpretentious and even boring arcade on and off light in a suite of rooms – while deeper knowledge will perceive the game as an invitation to travel, to the study of consciousness and conscience of the hero games, and even the player himself, similar to the effect of the films Tarkovsky, and other masters of auteur.

For developers who have always stressed their desire to see a player “not the consumer, and co-author,” it is logical to come up with a new project on Kickstarter . Fundraising proved to be quite successful, only instead of the promised last December, “Tuk-tuk-tuk” saw the light only at the beginning of this month. Of course, during this time, the game has changed and grown even more, but still lag concelebrated with the release of her is not very good stead: and in appearance, and the elements of gameplay it now may seem like a Do not Starve . Although, of course, games are developed independently of each other – high-tech projects from AAA publishers giants are increasingly giving way to products of small studios and indie developers who can surprise and please us more original games, though not as extensive and colorful.

However, just a stylish two-dimensional graphics, “Tuk-tuk-tuk” is written in its dignity – to the complex multi-layered story, invented by Nicholas Dybowski and his colleagues no longer have to wade through a bunch of 3D-models scary and not very user-friendly interface of previous work studio . Control of the game is minimized as learning rules of the game. Moreover, there are no general guidelines and explanations. From the beginning, the player is left alone with a mysterious house and is forced to get used entirely on their own, constantly, just until the end of the game, trying to figure out who this is actually his protagonist, what all these rooms, and that in general it is necessary to do . Approach is very interesting – although users who are accustomed to refer to the games it is the “consumer”, it will scare away once and for all.

Of course, the most basic action game tells the same: moving through the dark rooms and on / off light. Rooms are located in a house at random and at first completely empty – but if they ignite the light and wait for some time, the tenant begins to “recognize” appearing out of nowhere furnishings. He thus often shares with us his thoughts and memories (in gibberish, like characters The Sims, but with subtitles) and is lit rooms in the diary, sometimes allowing a deeper insight into just what is happening. The main element of the gameplay is the time, and the main task of the player – to hold out until dawn, until seven in the morning. Sooner or later, in dark rooms come off the “gaps” through which begin to penetrate into the house uninvited guests. Face them highly undesirable: the player will lose time and will be dropped at the beginning of the night, at seven o’clock in the evening. If a meeting is impossible to avoid – is hiding behind furniture that appear in lit rooms, and the light when it is better to turn off, or “ghost” you can not see. Best assistant residents at this stage will be a grandfather clock that sometimes appear in lit rooms and allow a few moments to accelerate the precious time.

The whole gameplay is divided into two equal parts: the “levels”, the content of which is to circumvent the night and the rooms in which tenant is trying to keep out of sight of his frightening ghosts, alternate levels where the player gently suggest to switch roles with their uninvited guests and walk through the night forest – in search of something lost and completely forgotten hero. This part is more monotonous – to hide here is more interesting than looking. But here, too, “Tuk-tuk-tuk” offers a choice – to continue the search, or go back home. The decision affects the fate of the offensive Player of the day – and the present, the final dawn happen relatively soon: all the gameplay takes about 16-20 levels of either type or 3-4 hours of playing time. 

Another thing is that this familiarity with the tenants, forest and mysterious rooms should not be limited to – the first ascent certainly lead you to a premature screen Game over, which means the madness of the hero, nedotyanuvshego until dawn. You can not save the game – there is only autosave level – so that an adverse ending you have to start all over again. But in the second and third attempt, when the management and the game of hide and seek with the guests is already a matter of habit – then already beginning to pay attention to detail, and on the other side of the more interesting of all, what is happening on the screen. As a result, the story of the hero and the little world he tries to understand – thanks to the fitment manifested in the rooms, whispering and appearance of uninvited guests, numerous cryptic notes, and in particular, what little lucky enough to discover during raids outside the forest – finally begins to find its meaning.

We can assume that to reach a full understanding of this is not all. Despite the unusual approach to the gameplay, nice graphics and quite skillful injection intimidating atmosphere secrets, not every modern player who is used to the perception of games as entertainment, not survive a particularly diverse game of hide and seek with the creatures of nightmares and night patrols creaky old house with a candle in hand. “Tuk-tuk-tuk” does require some effort, stress, being an occasion for reflection and even.

But Ice-Pick Lodge deserves all the recognition is for his courage, loyalty to the cause for the creation of original and not enough on what similar projects, even if they are not quite games – but something even more than the game. A lot of the latter and their loyal fans who give birth to diverse hints of “morality,” “Tension” and “Tuk-tuk-tuk”, the whole philosophical discussion … So, even if in the end it turns out that the last game, for all its originality – not just for you, is yet to get acquainted with this little masterpiece. Especially because it is available for most modern platforms, including Linux, – and in December and is expected to yield versions for iOS and Android.

The post “Tuk-tuk-tuk” – Are all at home? appeared first on Raqwe.