Now Playing: Puppeteer

I'm actually also going to be playing the Battlefield 4 trial since I'm actually curious enough about what improvements its made to the campaign. I'm not expecting much with that, but I plan to take a free offer when its given to me. Still since I'm waiting on the installation, I have yet to deal with it and thus I'll talk about the main game I'm going to be working on that I actually own (well kinda. PS+ own). I've often used this game before as a great example of amazing games Sony publishes against the odds, or as those "just plain fun games" that don't get enough credit. Its kind of true, but as I'm actually playing it now I'm finding it to be a lot weirder than I expected it. I thought of it as somewhat of an artsy sidescrolling platformer, and that's why I've got it through PS+. Sorry, but I do my share of support for niche games that appeal to me, 2D platformers are bargain bin material in my eyes. I'll support them with word of mouth like I've been doing with this game on the blog, but when it comes down to it its not my thing quite like Wolfenstein and Sly cooper are. However I was also kind of wrong. Instead of just a cool flashy and awesome take on simple old sidescrolling its actually a bit more modern than I expected it without at all feeling overused. Its kind of cross between light hearted fun and serious "artsy" cinematic gaming and genre blending like you'd see more in today but its executed in the same tone as you'd expect for a game more to its time in gameplay. The story is like a cross between being really gamey and a Disney film. You have a fairy tale feeling, you have a big booming villain and his clumsy henchmen, a whiney comedy relief, and a hero who's choosen by magical scissors in Excalibur fashion. Then you realize the boy is also mute, the villains have these odd powers and a sense of dark energy, the second act's plot so far is that the forest is becoming corrupted under dark evil goop, collectibles litter every level, you can unlock side stories that flesh out the lore and history and you've lots of puns and cannon fodder going on. That's just the story and lore side of things to, and noting how it crosses old school game story logic and sillyness with old Disney film charms all with a more cinematic and scripted presence. So far I've been up to act 2, stage 2 at this point and I feel I have enough to talk about it and enough investment to hopefully finish it. Just as much as this game is a mixed bag, I feel quite mixed about it though.

Now what I absolutely adore about this game is its presentation. From the start menu with the narrator welcoming you in and reminding you to turn off your cell phones, to the audio work behind the exceptional voice acting and music. I'm never a massive fan of generic orchestrated music, but when they take a leave out of the bland and generic movie score sound and become something more mystical and magic driven, it really works wonders. Either that, or since I notice it usually works in stylized cartoon games maybe I'm just somehow more easily immersed and noticing the charm of the music within cartoony games. I think its just that they capture a better feeling of melodies, think Zelda for a moment with that. Real-ish orchestra, but done in this awesome tone you can hum... I think all of the orchestrated stylish games sort of capture that amazing feeling and magic with it in some sense. But I'm digressing. The presentation is just wonderful about this game, I'm just constantly amazed by every little detail and chuckle every time a pause sends the stage curtains down into "intermission". Whenever it really does boil down to straight forward platforming for a while without any of the clear stage or story effects (the curtains will always be folded to the sides, but still without any move and on a harder part it becomes clear its a platformer under all that glorious stage stuff), it kind of drags me out of that moment and the magic loss is just a stark contrast. Its not that the gameplay is bad, its just that the stage presentation is so good by comparison its sad to feel without it even for a moment. I love the characters, the constant and silly puns, the 4th wall jokes, the story, the boss characters, its all just so awesome. [Early spoiler-ish content for the rest of this paragraph] I was honestly sad when I found out the cat didn't play as big of a role as I initially thought, even if he was meant to be a despicable character. Meanwhile the witch is just awesome as a character. She's playing on so many different sides at once, its just fascinating to see her on screen. She was an evil minion to the main villain, but always wanted to betray him, so she sends you on this quest but fumbles as she realizes she needs you to get the powers she originally sent you to retrieve for her. So she's obviously still evil trying to just win for herself, but equally as much she's you're mentor training you and helping you in each new move you learn. In the process she's clumsy, goofy, has odd magic and dialogue, and constant mood swings making for a good laugh in her character. On top of that she's promising to help you out in the end, even if you know she doesn't mean much good. So she's a friend, a villain, and comical all at once. Ultimately she's the most curious and unpredictable element of the whole story. The closest comparison I can make to her is maybe the step mother in Disney's movie Tangled, but even then I think the witch is much cooler.

So what's bad? Well.... the fact is I love watching and "feeling" the game out more than playing it. I can't really complain about its gameplay in any objective way, its solid, its just... I dunno, its not totally clicking with me. I have a decent list of subjective nitpicks or complaints over it. The head system feels a bit off balanced with how a head you already have can drop at random and ruin your current collection, meanwhile acting as a health system it just feels tedious sometimes to chase your head down. The difficulty isn't too high, but its unpredictable and the game weaves in and out of some speedy tough and rough spots mixed with encounters that are way too easy. Similarly the pacing of the game is just random. For example the second level has you looking for a knight and something powerful, and at the very end you hear talk of some awesome powerful shield you're character has uncovered after a boss fight... but its a bit confusing as there doesn't seem to be anything noticeable. It ends and then the 3rd level begins with this training course as you then fight your way through the level after this.... so its kind of almost like a tutorial for the shield, but like I mentioned with the difficulty it really doesn't take long before it expect you to think real fast with this system its just given you. Then after that level its over and you move on to the next act, which is sort of like a "world" in mario terms. So.... you gave me a new power at the 2nd level, started 3 off with a tutorial and used it, then I complete the world and get nothing.... oh but don't worry the 1st level of the 2nd act then confuses this whole thing up more. You get to do a full platform level, then new power and its tutorial on spot, and then a repetitive boss fight that makes sure you know how to use it.... all in the first level of act 2. This game has no sense of typical pacing or even its own idea of consistency. It just throws powers and bosses at you whenever it feels like it. So I just feel a bit aimless and the level set-up a bit pointless in the gameplay which throws me off a bit from the story and presentation I love. Finally, the last problem I may have is just some of the repetition in boss fights. That act 2 power is actually a great example. You fight these corrupt "lantern" guys that feel like a mini-boss where they are giant monster with patterns you have to exploit. However they're over in one hit. Still notice how I'm doing this plural? Well its one at a time, same stage type, and same identical idea of a monster, but you have to take them on 3 times with tiny little twists to their patterns. That sounds like a boss fight formed out of seperate entities, right? Well the developer didn't think so, this is all just repetetive and annoying practice for the real boss that does the same thing only you have to hit him 3 times. So you're basically fighting a boss with the same pattern 6 times over. Likewise one of the lesser bosses in act 1 has so many hitpoints, but few diverse attacks. The bosses in this game just love being as repetetive as they possibly can to me, and the moments usually come out from epic to "is it over yet!? Please be over!!!". Whenever I get to that train of though, I want it to be because the boss was tense not dragging on. Sadly that's more of the case, its a drag. I was actually slightly more amused when the true story context boss was half QTE, even as much as I thought it sucked that had now been implemented into a 2D game I was at least grateful the pattern I clearly learned wouldn't be forced on me for another 10 minutes. Now all these complaints don't make it a bad game, once again I think its gameplay even alone is one that commands some respect, just not something I'm into with some of the choices taken here.

Overall I really want to get to the end of puppeteer and experience the whole play thing it has set up and going for it. Everything on the presentation side is just absolutely phenomenal! I kind of wish I were more skilled with these kind of games to because I would love to collect all the extra bits without repeating everything. The downside to the presentation is the same as replaying a COD campaign, you're going to have to do some skipping and witness some down time cutting into your gameplay glory. If you want to redo a level, you'll be redoing the story that comes with it. Still for such a different game, and such a great tone, I think it deserves to be cut some slack in this area. Despite its surprising amount of scripts, presentation, odd QTEs, and my personal issues with the gameplay, I stand by what I said before about this being one of those plain fun and grand middle tier type games people should be more willing to support. Unless there really are so many like me that just cannot get into these sidescrollers, I'm baffled that these games don't sell. Blame the marketing all you want, but that doesn't stop other games from selling well. Anyways I hope to see this clever and unique game to the end... I don't see why not, I have a good seat with this theater after all.