Yesterday, I got a bunch of microsoft points on my xbox 360. It’s an elite, before you ask, and a gift. But I got some demos, including the games The Dishwasher, (two of it, actually. Dead Samurai and Vampire Smile), Lucidity, Limbo, and a couple of others. These four, of course, were the first ones I tried.
Lucidity… now here’s an interesting mental workout, and a child friendly game, as far as I saw. Your job in this game is to make sure a young girl, Sofi, can keep going through her dream world. It’s a very beautifully done game, with story-book like art. The landscapes are gorgeous to look at, as well as the game itself being a decent challenge. Gamespot called it a sometimes frustrating thing, because to help said little girl, you get an assortment of pieces and items. It’s very much like tetris, in that you are given randomly generated pieces, and need to find out how they fit in with the current situation, or be stuck trying to place pieces until the one you need appears. Personally, I like the game, loved what I saw of the story line, but let me tell you, you’ll need to pay attention. It’s made to be simple, but drawn out.
That’s it for the kiddie games, unfortunately…
The Dishwasher is a beat em up game with plenty of violence, and an interesting story. You play as “The Dishwasher”, a man who really hates the current government, which is made up by things called cyborgs, or something close to that. As you go through the game, he recalls more and more of his past, and seeing as how I didn’t get very far, a couple of notes might not be too bad.
His sister decided to leave home, and join the cyborg revolution, because they promised a happy, peaceful life. The Dishwasher is angry, not because the cyborgs won, or even that she left to join, but more that they took her away from him. You’d think that’s all there is, pretty basic story, right? Well, that’s where the fun begins. That’s barely the surface of this tide.
Vampire Smile I haven’t gotten much time to play, though it seems to have some… interesting twists to the story line, and I’m already pleased, with the ten or so minutes I did manage to play.
Now, last, but certainly not least, was Limbo.
You play as a young boy, who’s set out to discover the fate of his sister. … That’s all you’re given. Now, with that standpoint, you enter Limbo, a world of black, white, and grays. You have to control the young boy, which often becomes difficult, as the physics in the game can be very real sometimes. You don’t get an instant long jump, if you try. You need to run for a few seconds, or slide down a hill to get a jump that you need sometimes. It’s all based on timing, too. Things like the giant spider, random glow worms that can take over your body temporarily, bear traps, and inhabitants of Limbo can all provide some big challenges, and unless you’re willing to watch the young boy die continuously in his quest, you’ll have a difficult time completing the game.
The death’s are often all quick, and sudden. Say if you step on a bear trap, all you hear is a click, before suddenly his body is entrapped in the jaws of said trap, and his head is popped off by the blades slamming into his neck. It’s a very morbid game, and I have yet to see the ending, though you can believe I will include it in my next rant.
I don’t often do video game reviews, but I enjoy doing so when a particular game catches my attention. These four, for example, so you’ll have to forgive this random rant. In the meantime, I want to thank you for reading, and apologize for the mildly dark theme of some of the games.
Do svidanya!
-T.D.S.