​

I find it hard to provide a verdict for Shadowrun Returns. On one hand, it has clear flaws, some that are even glaring. It’s short as hell, and a playthrough will take you something around 13 hours tops. Its replay value is a bit questionable. It’s more of a fast-food kind of deal than an actual full-scale game.​

On the other hand, you have to be fair and keep in mind the game's limited budget in the context of its flaws. Not to mention that the peanuts this game costs offer you a tremendous ratio of bang for your buck. There's also the prospect of fan-made scenarios coming out from the editor. And, finally, what I guess has the most (albeit subjective) say on the matter, is that I simply fragging enjoyed my time with the game. I'm keeping my fingers crossed tightly for the upcoming official campaign in Berlin that's supposed to have a more open world and more side missions.​

So it has great music and graphics, but let's talk about gameplay. In this release, 3 out of 5 classes (called Masteries in-game) have been included - Soldier, Demolitionist and Occultist. The Soldier is your basic Melee class, the Demolitionist is a ranged/trap based class and the Occultist is a summoner/mage type class. You are in complete control of how you want your character to progress, and at level 10, you can dual class. Immediately you feel a sense of personal ownership and attachment to your character as you experiment with unique builds and you remember what makes RPG systems fun other than finding phat lewt - customization. I can already predict that there will be thousands of viable, unique builds in this game. You will definitely feel as though your character is yours, and yours alone. You can respec, but this comes at a cost per skill point. While that cost is a measly 100 iron (the currency of Cairn), I suspect that this may change in the full release of the game, encouraging you to carefully think about what skill you choose to obtain or level up. The confirmed classes that are missing from the Alpha are the Nightblade - a dual wielding assassin type class, and the Arcanist - a pure wizard type class. Both sound very interesting and are sure to add a lot of variety to the mix.

Difficulty wise, Grim Dawn follows the aRPG tradition of offering 3 difficulty levels each unlockable via full playthroughs. However the Alpha only offers the starting normal difficulty. Don't be fooled though, the game is far from a walk in the park. I’ve only died a handful of times, but the fights are always exciting and exhilarating, forcing me to think about space, the environment, choke points and how much time I have left before my skills recharge. There’s tension, and that’s a good thing. Loot acquisition seems to be nicely paced as well, as I’ve consistently been finding better/more interesting gear which has made me think about what kind of character I want to build.​

It’s often argued that PS:T suffers from a drop in quality from Curst through to Carceri, when the player’s no longer free to explore the hubs of Sigil but instead has to work their way through a succession of smaller, wilder locations with a far higher number of hostile creatures. As a writer, how exactly do you go about trying to pace a game where the player can leap from world to world and spend longer inside one conversation tree than an entire dungeon?

A large part of this is defining our base storyline and the behavior of our NPCs within those modules. Right now we’re establishing our constraints and briefs for area design, and we’re planning of the relative size, in terms of gameplay, for each section of the game. We’re also working on character and Mere placement and number and size of dialogues. At some point, even the most completionist of players are going to decide they’ve wrung every bit of reactivity out of an area and move on. But some choices are mutually exclusive, and we don’t see it as a possibility that you’ll be able to experience the entirety of the game in a single playthrough. In fact, I don’t think you’ll get it on two.

Now, I should mention that we don’t see it as our job to make sure people move along at the pace we’ve dictated. We’re designing the story so that people can progress through the mainline at their own pace, while trying to keep the sense of urgency on the story.

But the real answer to the question is that we’re designing the game so that you can go back to areas and explore at your own pace, though you’ll start to have difficulties if you stagnate too long in one place. I see that’s the next question, though, so I’ll save further discussion for that question.

It's often held that the combat in PS:T left a great deal to be desired not only in its mechanics, but also in the sense of (to air videogame theory's most impressive-sounding new buzzphrase) ludonarrative dissonance; in that whether you were murdering your way through the Tenement of Thugs just to get to the alleyway on the other side or bashing entire swarms of mindless critters in the Weeping Catacombs or Curst Underground, fighting frequently came across as arbitrary obstacle-placing, rather than relevant to what the player character was trying to achieve in the game's narrative. Without delving into the undecided technical side of things, how would you want to go about ensuring that the combat never feels disjointed from the story?

Combat should be a part of the story, whether to indulge or to avoid. It should always serve the purpose of moving your understanding of your character ahead, and that’s one of the ways we fell down on PST. Kevin, Adam, and I have talked about this fairly extensively, and we agree that our combats should serve a narrative purpose, and that avoiding those combats will help reveal more about your character as well—whether you talk your way out of fighting or flee from your foe, you’ll create a picture of who you are in this game.

So trash mobs won’t be prevalent in Torment. No random gangsters deciding that you look like a prime target. No killing rats for XP. I’m not saying that we won’t have any mindless fights, just that trouble won’t always come looking for you to ruin your non-combat playthrough. In Numenera as well, you don’t get XP for killing monsters, so combat becomes optional – your XP comes from telling a story, from solving problems, from being clever players. We are enjoying exploring in that vein.​

When I first met Swen Vincke in Larian's offices in Ghent, I felt intimidated. The reason was vain and instinctive - at 1.9m, I'm taller than most of my peers, but Swen is even taller than me. I also didn't know how he'd react to my presence. After all I was an "emissary of the RPG Codex", which is a fancy way to say that I am not a member of the Codex staff and was sent there because I live not far from Ghent (then again, nothing is far from anything in Belgium). I have no previous video game journalism experience, my words do not carry weight in the video game community, and this meeting was organised because another Codex member bitched on the forums about Larian running out of money, to which Swen had replied on his blog that he'd invite one of us to Larian's office to check on the progress of Divinity: Original Sin in order to dispel such rumours. "I didn't think they'd actually send someone!", I heard him say later that day. This was all good fun, but I knew that the folks at Larian had to be very busy, working on two games at the same time, and I was afraid they might not appreciate my intrusion.

All the tension melted away when Swen and I started talking. He's the kind of man with a calm and amiable attitude that makes you instantly feel comfortable, so much in fact that you just want to sit next to him to have a chat about various things. That's actually what we did for the next few hours - sit next to each other, chat and play Divinity: Original Sin in co-op.

[...] Before visiting Larian I had assumed that Dragon Commander was an RTS that allowed you to enter the battlefield in your dragon form and take a direct part in the action; I thought that would be the gimmick that would set it apart from the rest of real-time strategy games. Bear also in mind that I'm no great fan of the RTS genre although I do enjoy some of them occasionally. However, Dragon Commander turned out to be much, much more than what I had expected. In fact, it isn't even an RTS but rather a hybrid of different genres, something that has become very rare these days. In one package, you'll find social interactions and political decisions where your choices actually matter, turn-based strategy with a strong board game feel, and real-time strategy with an action twist.​

At GameStop, an employee immediately recognizes me. He gushes over how amazing the game is while another he handles the purchase. He hands me back my father's credit card along with my brand new copy of the Playstation 3 version of Bioshock: Infinite, telling me, "Thank you, Mr. DeStupid."

I get home, slide in the disc, and the next hour passes in an instant. The start of the game is intriguing with a fairly atmospheric lighthouse scene and a nice aerial introduction of Columbia. I've already got questions I want answered: what's the deal with this girl I need to find? What about the flying city, how does that work? Unlike most other big budget games I've played, there's no combat sequence at first. I spend a solid thirty minutes or more just exploring the city, taking in the interesting art design, the amusing religious songs. The shooting and Vigor-casting tutorials are so cleanly integrated, I barely even notice them. Slight oddities do start to nag at me (people seem to leave a lot of money lying around...) but I push those thoughts to the side.

Then a fight breaks out. Being a hardcore gamer, I have set the difficulty to Hard and the first firefights with Columbia policemen do not disappoint. My measly shield dissipates near-instantly and I spend most of the time hiding behind things, trying to survive. Sure, the enemy AI is as basic as it gets and hiding behind things isn't exactly rocket science but I, once again, push those thoughts to the side. I have to find the girl, after all, and I'm genuinely interested in what will happen next.

Someone knocks on my door. I glance back to see a guy I don't recognize. "Hi, I couldn't help but hear you playing Bioshock Infinite from the hall." I invite him in. "I'm Youtuber. Youtuber DeStupid," I tell him. "Nice to meet you, Youtuber. My name's Mono. Mono Cull." Mono Cull looks a bit older and, after we talk more, I find out that he's a brilliant graduate student, studying Physics. I agree to let him watch as I play the game since he owns no consoles and his computer only runs Linux.

As I hunt for Elizabeth ("the girl"), I'm forced to fight seemingly endless hordes of policemen. It's still sort of enjoyable but I'm wondering when things will evolve. After all, I'm still using the same basic handgun and my only Vigor, Persuasion, uses a full 50% of my Salt bar with each cast. Mono more explicitly voices his concern about the combat's monotony but I shrug it off. Surely, I'll get some sweet new powers and items soon, right? The game answers my question by giving me the Sky-Hook, a feature lauded by many of Weakstock's reviewers.​

Family visits. You know how it always goes. All those nagging little hints that subtly point at your failures in life: "Your YOUNGEST cousin just got married this week..." or "Weston, the neighbour's son has now been promoted to captain in the Royal Guard. His parents are SO proud of him..." None of that sort in this family. Before you even have the chance to greet your mom, the old hag decides to push you down into a well. Wasn't that old tradition reserved to only unwanted newborns? You know, for the little mishaps that result from visiting the village priest or when your brother drinks just a bit too much mead? [...]

Excuse Me Sir. I am Looking For a Hidden Fish

So if not combat and character development, what does the game really has to offer? Pixel hunts, for one. The game locations are filled with items you can interact with, hidden treasures and secrets. Crafting ingredients, gold, attribute increasing bonuses... There is a tonne of stuff for those with the obsessive compulsive hoarding habit.

Besides hunting for material, you also obtain a wealth of information. Despite the tongue-in-cheek approach of the game, it is by no means a joke. The in-game lore is well fleshed out, with monster encyclopaedias, small stories and item descriptions.

The real meat of the game is the adventure. Almost every character has something to say; even most of the sentient enemies can be heard grumbling about their miserable duty. Quite surprisingly, the myriad of different followers you recruit on your journeys are quite reactive to the things that happen around them. Sometimes the wealth of one-liners even gets tiresome. Overall the dialogue is well written, even if a bit too simplistic. There are dialogue trees, and occasional choices that lead to a different outcome. [...]

The Verdict

Despite its shortcomings, would I recommend the game for anyone? To much of my own surprise, I find myself saying "yes". Driftmoon has a certain flavour to it. In a way, the magical journey you undertake reminds me of those good-hearted children's fables. And maybe that is where the real target group of the game exists. This would be a good introductory RPG for younger players. Maybe something you'd make your own children play, in the hopes that they'd turn out less fucked up than you did.

The game certainly has something to offer for mature audiences as well, presuming that you go in with the right set of expectations. Building a game of this scale with a two person team is no small feat. I am especially looking forward to seeing what kind of results the community will be able to produce with the rich modding tools the game comes with.

If you doubt your ability to stomach simple light-hearted fun with no gritty grim dark dressing, give the demo a go. Who knows, maybe you'll rediscover your inner child. And if that doesn't work out... you can always find a well...​

Phantasie made use of passive skills during exploration to inform the player of such things as traps, hidden treasure and upcoming monsters. These features were rare at the time and are still rare today. How important do you think these mechanics were in terms of the overall gaming experience? Did you have any ideas for further skills that failed to make it into any of the games?

Those skills came from RuneQuest and D&D. They encourage the player have a greater variety of characters so that all of these skills are well balanced in their party. To imagine that your characters are listening for monsters and searching for traps gives a greater sense of realism and danger that was typically more present in tabletop games. I would have liked to have added rock climbing to Phantasie and generally make better use of the other skills but time and resources prevented that.

In 1990 Phantasie IV was released exclusively in Japan for MSX, NEC and Sharp computers. The game credits you as the creator of the series, but the actual development is credited to a Japanese company called Star Craft, Inc. What do you know about this game and did you have any involvement in it at all?

I designed Phantasie IV completely. I was able to go to Japan and meet the programmers from Star Craft but I was never able to test the game to any extent. I did consider doing another fantasy RPG but decided to do Star Command instead.

That's exciting to hear! Did you design Phantasie IV specifically for Star Craft, or have you already had it designed (for SSI perhaps) by the time Star Craft approached you? And why wasn't it published in the West?

Starcraft approached SSI with the idea of doing Phantasie IV in Japan. SSI then contacted me and I designed the game. SSI would have published it if anyone had been available to adapt it to computers like the Apple II or Commodore 64 but that never happened (I was busy designing and programming other software).

As far as I'm aware you left the industry at some point after the release of Star Command. What was the reason for your departure and what have you been up to since?

After Star Command I designed three games for Japanese companies. I thought designing the games without doing the programming would give me a chance to improve graphics quality and game play. However only one of the games (Phantasie IV) actually made it to the market and I found that I missed the opportunity to interact with the games during the design process.

At the same time I was given an opportunity to do some programming for a civil engineering software company (KYPipe, LLC). This proved to be a more stable source of income since sales of one product would continue for years instead of just a few months. I am still in that field to this day as part owner of KYPipe, LLC.

By the way I am currently working on Phantasie V. I don't get much time to work on it so its a very slow process. If you want you can check back with me in about a year and I will let you know the status of the project.

We will be sure to! Can you maybe tell us a bit about how you approach it? Will it look and play similar to the previous Phantasie games, or are you aiming for something new with it?

It is still very early in the development stage and it's really just for fun right now. I haven't given any thought to publishing. It will be a PC game though if it turns out well I may consider Android and IOS versions.

In general the scope should be quite a bit bigger but it should play very similar to the previous Phantasie games. I don't yet know how it will look but the main visual feature will still be the scrolling map on which all combat and exploration takes place.​

So, Alpha Protocol has a good plot, lots of clever characterization, and unsurpassed C&C. That means it should be great, right?

Well, too bad the gameplay sucks.

[...] Games can be crippled by a single bad gameplay element. Every element of Alpha Protocol's gameplay - from stealth, to shooting, to bosses, to minigames - ranges from bad to awful. Incredibly rarely does it all come together to something interesting: the game forcing my stealthy character to crack out the big guns to clear the bad guys from the ticking bomb in Italy is the only thing that springs to mind. The rest of the time it varies from easy tedium to dashes of irritation.

I wanted to love Alpha Protocol - it does a lot of things right, and there is much in it that other games should strive to imitate. These elements would be more than good enough to carry a merely mediocre gameplay experience: such was the case of Planescape and Arcanum or, for example, Deus Ex, which had below average stealth and shooting but gained a lot in the way it mixed these elements. Sadly, Alpha Protocol's gameplay isn't just mediocre - it is plain monstrous. It's one of the few games I found both boring (the 'stealth bits') and painful (the bosses, minigames and shooting) to play.

In the end, Alpha Protocol is an interesting experiment, but ultimately a failure. For gamers so addicted to climbing the heights of the (let's face it, pretty low lying) field of computer game storytelling that they're willing to go through the purgatory of playing this game, it's worth a go. Otherwise, steer clear.​