Red Dead Redemption, Puzzle Quest 2
More running through the desert and shooting cowpokes today. I like how the big early game boiled down to one big “oh shit” moment in which two different plotlines suddenly and violently converged, and it was obvious that from that point on, honest folk weren’t going to have a thing to do with you. Although I’m a bit upset that the game does what all GTA games do; once you reach the end of a given mission chain, there’s absolutely no way to get resolution. If they can’t find a way for a conversation to eventually involve shooting people, you don’t get to have it. I understand that the playdates in GTA4 were the most reviled part of the game, but something similar to that would have been nice, because there are some nicely written characters in this game.
Also, because I’m enjoying pretty much everything else about the game, I’ll talk about two things that rub me sideways. First, the random events that can happen in the world. They show up quickly, usually while you’re riding full-tilt down a country trail trying to make it to the next mission hub, and require you to quickly perform an action when you’re not fully paying attention. I’ve only been able to do one or two successfully, the others I’ve just felt cheated. Like when I’m asked to help stop a hanging, which I don’t because I forgot I was supposed to dramatically shoot the rope, or when a lady was violently mauled by cougars because I couldn’t wheel my mount around in time. I understand they are computer people, but damn it, people have died because I wasn’t told what I was supposed to do, and as chillingly effective that is to impart of the rough and unforgiving atmosphere, it still sucks to hell.
Second, you can’t sleep with hookers in this game. John Marston is faithful to his wife, even if he’s willing to set barns on fire and shoot lawmen in cold blood. I understand wanting to avoid the usual controversy, and at least they “justified” it, but damn it, if we can’t interact with them, don’t put them there. I know how inaccurate that would be, but you already hid all the children, just go one step further.
I also played a bit of the new Puzzle Quest, in which I leave the town to fight some goblins, and I’m liking their level design a lot. I was tasked to kill this one goblin, but he has all his minions on the way, which I may fight if I’d like, but if I do, there is a box of treasure in it for me. The minigames are all original and nice, from the doorbashing level to the opening the treasure box level to the magic key level. Sure, it doesn’t make any sense that the contents of a box vary based on how well I do in a minigame, but in a world where all conflicts are handled by Bejeweled, it’s understandable.
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