00:00:00
Speaker 1: Oh, nothing. You should know. I thought of you immediately when I was playing this game. I was like, this is this is some Tom shit, if ever there was Tom shit, it's this one. Why what about it? Well, okay, I'll tell you a few thinks, Like so one of them is that HI know you love Dead Space. It's always the show. You never know when the show starts here, you can never tell, You can never tell. Welcome to one OPSD Ship. This is Adam Ganzier, one of your hosts. Mike is out today, but joining us the most qualified person I can imagine guest co hosting this episode. Introduce yourself, Sir, I'm tom My name. Now you are? That's my name? Sure you are. So I'm gonna tell you why I thought of you. So, first of all, I know, like you're the dead Space guy, Like that's your like to me, like you're that guy. But also, uh, there was something about the way, like the sort of tone of this that I just kind of thought you would super dig. Yeah, like the sort of the low, the low simmering vibe of this game Colosto protocol that I thought you would super dig. Was I totally wrong about that? No, you were totally right, yeah. Yeah. I've played through this game two and a half times, and I'm just shit. Every time I play through it, I'm just vibing the hell out. I'm just like yeah, yeah, like cruising on a crunchy groove. It is a crunchy game too. It is very crunchy. That is one of the top words I would use to describe it. Yeah, somehow. Also, squishy is another top word. It's a little breaky. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, little, a little snappy. Yeah, this thing's not You're you're not gonna come out clean from this episode, ship Heads, Like you're gonna get a little dirty in this one, because you're gonna be climbing through some viscera. You're gonna be stained. There's a lot of poop. There is a much more poop than you may expect when you first boot the game up. I'm gonna go ahead and say much more than I needed. They still delivered. Yeah, they delivered the poop. They delivered it. There's an amount I needed there. Like, we're gonna double that minute we go right past, We're not even gonna look at it. We're just gonna zoom right by that. Like we're like we're a truck blasting by a way station. We're gonna hurl you spike first right into all that poop, actually right right into it. So okay, Well, if you haven't if you haven't read the title or listened to any words we've said so far, today's episode of One Optionship is going to be about, I think the largely mixed reviewed game Callisto Protocol, which was released in December of twenty twenty two. Uh just there were mixed vibes on this game critically. I don't want to get too far ahead, but that feel like that's true? Yeah, well, I mean I'm gonna let you do the auspicious honor of doing the tell me like imt bit part. So actually, let's just pass our first checkpoint and jump right into that. Time to feel up to that, Adam, I can't wait. I've been waiting, and I've been waiting all day to tell you like you're eight months. We've been waiting for the months to throw this in your face. You ate fool, hurl away, sir. Okay, So Callisto Protocol. You play a it's it's in the distant future. I forget what you're exactly. You play a guy named Jacob, who's like, you know, a freelance uh cargo spaceship flyer um and Reese. He's been flying missions to and from two moons of Jupiter. One of them is I Forget, but there's like a city on it, and you know, like a normal futuristic blade to interspace city. On the other moon, Callisto is a prison planet and on a job there, he gets ambushed sort of. They get boarded by the leader of this quote unquote terrorist organization and the ship crashes back down in Callisto. She gets taken into custody, but so does your character Jacob, and he's thrown in the middle of this mystery. As as he's thrown into this prison, some huge breakout happens. You're not sure what's going on, but all of a sudden, there's chaos all through the prison. There's monsters all about Boogins and Boggins crawling him to the floor and ceiling, and you have to make your way through this prison, try to escape and get off the planet, and also try to uncover the mystery of what's going on on this prison. And that's that's pretty much it. That's pretty mu shit. Yeah, I totally agree, I should. I should describe what the game is, right, Oh yeah, that would be Sorry, I forgot exactly. I just gave you a plot description. It's a third person action game kind of survival horrory made by the one of the lead creative director of the original Dead Space, glenscoe Field. So it has a whole lot in common with Dead Space. It shares a lot of the same DNA controls, largely the same except for the new edition of this melee system, a lot of the fighting you do in the game as opposed to there's not very many weapons. There's only about four or five guns. You do most of your fighting with this big old stick, this stunt baton, and you get to do cool combos and standard kind of survival horror stuff. You start out pretty bleak and pretty desperate, and you get powered up as the game goes on, and you can do multiple playthroughs. Like a lot of other survivor horror, survival horror games tend to sort of play around in the speed running space, so there's like a reward for you to continue playing this game over and over again, so you get more unlocks and really go ham on some of these monsters. Yeah, I can see that that makes perfect sense. That was beautifully done. Thank you, absolutely, just what a gorgeous confused and rambling, but I'm glad. I no, it was gorgeous. It was intact. It was not a ship monster, though there will be many of those display for us today. So I'm going to pass our next checkpoint, which means it's time for us to get into the hot takes that we are each going to give about how we feel about this game. Um, I'll tell you right up top really quick before I even give mine. Mike hated this game. Mike and I were completely talking about it, which is why I wanted to do this episode when he wasn't here, so that you and I can have talk about the game without that anicious pain. I knew he hated it, yeah it, he hated this game. Yeah, So I'm cheating them the way that I often do. So when when the when the cats away, the mice will play. That's what they will That's the first game they'll play. Yeah, that's the first thing there. Their little mice hands will pull off the shelf. It'll blow their fucking mice brains out. They gotta stand on each other. It's my shoulders to put the disk in this story. I'm like, in the story we're pitching here, Yeah, okay, player one Adam Ganzer plug it in. Okay. So I just want to say this game got a sixty nine on Metacritic, like meaning that's that's the the collective consensus, and the game itself often feels to me like like they were sort of desperate to get it out before the Dead Space remake came out. Um, just because there are pieces of it to feel a little bit rushed. I'm sure that it couldn't be that uh, it couldn't be that granular of a problem that they knew for sure the Dead Space remake was coming out, But it does like there's there were little pieces of polish that we're missing. I thought this game was underrated by people who like by the critical consensus. I thought it was actually pretty fun. I do not think it's great, in part because I don't think it is innovating anything, but I do think it takes some fun risks. One of those risks is it decided to include Mike Tyson's punch Out as it's like feature combat Loop, which is m I'm gonna go ahead and say a pretty ballsy swing. It really is. It's a ballsy swing, and it's kind of fun for a little while. The problem with this is that it wears a little thin, and after a bit you start to think about what you're doing because it's a little bit thin and you feel the silliness of it. So it kind of ends up undermining the vibe of the game, at least for me. I'm sure there's some people who would never have that problem. But you know, after eight hours of like bobbing and we even, like Mike Tyson something from these you know, it's like or soda poppin ski or something like. It's like, I mean, I'm glad these aren't racist monsters I'm killing. But also there's a little stupid you know what I mean, Uh, it's a little stupid. So it just makes you a little bit aware of that. Um the storytelling. I think the story here wasn't bad, but the problem is that they condensed almost all of it into the third act, so like, we really didn't get a lot of story here for a very long time. We got sort of mystery box horse shit and needless conflict. That was for about six hours of the game where we're not really coming into a clearer view of what is actually going on in this place, like why are there monsters? Why did they let the monsters out in the prison. Like these kind of questions don't get answered until about six seven hours into the into the narrative time of an eight hour game, and I just think that's a mistake. I think that we needed the mid point of the game basically to kind of have the premise of it more clear than it is. Um. But that said, I don't think we're in the four spoken territory where the plot is really really dumb and bad. I think we're in the territory where like it's just not very artfully done, um, and so it's not impactful. I think that's the key problem here. Vibe wise, this game couldn't be more of a gans game, like like give me the squishes, man, give me give me these a dusty yeah, pour some squishes on me, my dudes. Uh, it's super viby, man. And like if you want to, like if you want to play Dead Space again, but you've played Dead Space again and you're like, man, I wish there was more of it. This is gonna hit scratch that itch, you know, like, uh, I don't I miss some of the creativity of dead Space, Like I don't think the puzzling is here, really, I don't think the weapons are as interesting as they were in dead Space for me, Like, you know, the collection of guns are pretty whatever, um, and the leveling up as a little bit punitive, Like you never you don't make a lot of meaningful leveling up decisions, I would say for a pretty long time. So like, I know that sounds like a lot of negative stuff, but that's like, I really think that's the harshest critique you can level at it. Otherwise, it's a pretty fun game, you Like, it's pretty fun, like hurling a ship monster into a spiky wall of which there are perhaps infinite spent throughout this fun it stays fun the whole time. If you don't like doing that, why did you buy this game? If you do like doing that, congratulations, you've purchased the correct game. That's my rant. Nice rant, well done, thank you, well thank you. Okay, okay, player too, tom Ryman plugging in here, Okay, get this beat beat boots in there. Um. I also think this game is really fun. I'm a huge dead Space fan, which if you've been listening to the show for a while, you probably know that. Um, and I just I like the core gameplayer this. I thought the Melee edition was pretty cool. It took a little bit getting used to. At first, it was it threw me off for a little bit. Um. But as you get into it, and especially as you start unlocking some of the upgrades for the stun baton where you can get, for example, one that if the monster tries to block your swing, you'll just break their arm. That is so satisfying. Oh yeah, you've got the Canesis grab like you do in Dead Space. They call it a grip in this game, where you can pick up the boogins and throw them at all sorts of ship that is no business being in a prison like so many giant fans, so many spike walls. Um, there's a giant harvester in one level yep ye where it's like grinding up trees to create the atmosphere. I guess, um, you and you you bet your sweet little space cheeks you can throw monsters into that thing. I thought the just the general gameplay, uh is super fun. Um, It's very satisfying. It's very visceral. This is an incredible looking game, one of the best looking games I've ever played. The level of detail and resolution on specifically the environments are it's so finely detailed, so it really it really helps with that vibe. This like kind of spooky simmerin, kind of grim kind of grimy vibe, like a grimy sci fi horror vibe that I really dig. I agree that the guns are not anywhere near as interesting as they are in Dead Space. I don't mind that as much. There's a mechanic with the guns that got a lot of heat when this game came out, where it's when you switch weapons. The conceit is your character Jacob. He has basically two frames and you three D print guns to put onto those frames. So every time you change a weapon, you have to take apart the frame and put the new gun onto it. So it takes a little bit. It takes a couple of seconds, like not a couple of seconds. It takes maybe like a second or two to switch your weapon, which is an eternity if you're in the middle of a fight. Now, the game got a lot of heat for that, but I think that's a deliberate I mean, obviously it's a deliberate choice. They programmed it in there, and it's sort of on its face, it seems like counterintuitive to like quality of life for gamers. Obviously, you want to be able to switch your weapons as fast as you can, just you know, to make it a more satisfying and more fair seeming gameplay system. However, having it be designing the system so that you can't really switch your weapons on the drop of a hat, I think adds a whole lot to the immersion and the vibes of it, because you're supposed to be trapped in this horrible space prison with all these monsters, and you can't really pull out your biggest gun whenever you want to on the fly. You have to sort of think a little bit ahead, and you can't really do it in the middle of a huge fight, so you have to kind of like pick your moments when you want to do that. So I sort of compare it to like how there's no real fast travel system in like Red Dead Redemption too, and like traveling from one place to another, and Red Dead takes a long time, but that's on purpose because so much the game is about the traversal. So I think it's a similar decision in this game, where so much of what this game is about the immersion and the vibes. So, like, I think that's a great vibe choice and also doesn't matter as much because you if an enemy gets into your personal space, you just knock the Bejesus out of him with your stunt baton. Related to the vibes, I love the vibes of this game. We've said that word so many times. Uh, the game is not scary at all. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it really isn't. And I like in that to not like in that. I credit a lot of that to what you were saying about the melee system. I totally agree. Like it's like, I don't care if a monster gets close to me, because if he does, I'm going to beat the shit out of him, just ruthlessly, mercilessly beat his ass with a with a stunt baton like jose canseco. Um. So it's not very scary, um, but I do. I do love the vibe and I love the immersion. It's also I'm a little I'm gonna come down a little bit harder on the plot than than you. I totally agree. I totally agree with it is it is very much backloaded, where everything happens in the span of like ninety minutes in the end of the game. UM. I also thought that the plot, which is kind of it's it's very extremely derivative of Dead Space. It's basically just dead Space again, where not to not to spoil too much, but it's it's the same idea of like this cult that's obsessed with eternal life and they found this alien boogin thing that they think will make them live forever, but really it just turns everybody into burger monsters. Um and, which is pretty much what Dead Space is about. Um So it felt kind of derivative and a little like, oh, he just kind of did the same thing. Like they even call the enemy's biophages in this game, and in Dead Space are called necrophages. Um So yeah, I was. I was kind of let down by the plot. Um However, I think the acting is really good. Uh specifically um Josh dumal is as the main character, where you can kind of tell he's just like when you get like a movie star to be the lead. You know, he's not a huge star, but he's been on a lot of movies and a lot of big movies. Um, you can just like he he just sells it a whole lot. I don't really know how to describe it other than you can tell that this is a person who's like a little bit of a higher caliber than an actor they might normally get to be the lead in a game like this, So like, he really makes you feel every gruesome death that you happen to stumble into. And just like he really helps sell the the immersion and and the vibe. And then obviously Karen Fukuhara from The Boys is the leader of the terrorists and she's great. Um. And then the bad guy is Sam Whitwer playing this crazed captain of the Guards, and he he's not in it that much, but he makes some bold choices with his performance entertaining. Yeah, it is extremely entertaining. But yeah, so all in all, you know, it's it's a little jankie in some spots. Um, I not. I appreciate that it's not very long. Like I said, this falls into a category of game for me that I like to play over and over again and try to speed run, you know, like the original Resident Evils. You get a rating based on how quickly you can beat it, and that sort of extends into this game and in the original Dead Space as well, which I've beaten multiple times. And I've already beaten this game two and a half times, so I'll probably play it a bunch more. I just I dig the gameplay. I dig being in this universe, even if the stories lackluster and there's some and it's not very scary, Like the game doesn't scare me at all. Anyway, rant Over loved it. Some good stuff for us to talk about, because there are a couple like continuums of when should this bother you that I kind of want to talk about. Sure, uh, that's great, but let's save those until the other side of the break. And so grab your stun baton and you know, the piece of the gun that you need to always have, that's right, and uh, we'll we'll, we'll get all strapped up for the bogans that are coming our way right after this. Strap it on and we're back. Hey, are somehow I'm not going to jab my gun this time? By how many times did you screw up the gun switch because of the system they create it, I still screw it up. Yeah, yes, I still screw it up. Too. Uh, And it's actually the first thing I want to talk about when we pass our next checkpoint and get into a game on where all opinions are welcome, though not equally good, and all interruptions are tolerated. So I guess my first question for you, sir. That sounds like a challenge. You know how I do it. My first question for you, sir, is, so you compared the gun system to Red Dead too, right? Yeah? Yeah, and I get that comparison. It made intense and intense. Yes, in intent, I agree, it makes sense. And in that game, we forgave the inconvenience that it created by slowing down our operation systems because we saw the intent. So why do you think we didn't this time? Because I think it's very clearly intentional too. I don't think that's a mistake. You know, it's clearly intentional. Why do you think people didn't forgive it this time? I'm not sure? Okay, I think um, I'm honestly not sure. I think my immediate guests would be the pay off is admittedly not as rewarding like the experience of riding on your horse through the world of Red Dead two is so cool and so unforgettable. It's a great, great experience. You just it's not the reward is not on the same level of I can't switch my guns very fast, so therefore it is scarier and a little more tense, like each firefight's more tense. I just think it's it's more subtle. It's not as loud of a thing, so it can feel I think the intent can be missed because especially with a game like this, where it is sort of like a close up, kind of in your face action horror game, people probably are used to that being kind of buttery smooth, even though it comes from Resident Evil, which is notoriously clunky on purpose the original ones. Anyway, that's right, So I think I don't know, I think that's that probably has something to do with it. It's it's a little more subtle, it's not as it's not as rewarding. And also I think people just you know, we're we're drinking the Red Dead kool aid and wanted to you know, just praise whatever. Yeah, whereas this game was already kind of shaky out of the gate um. You know, it's it's a brand new ip. It's not a very popular genre, is that true? It seems like it should be a popular genre. Yeah. You maybe maybe I'm talking out of my ass. Yeah, but I feel like I feel let me, let me, let me rephrase that it's a more it's a more niche genre. M yeah, I see that that makes sense. Like not like I think the horror turns a lot of people off because the horror games are intense, so people don't like that experience sometimes. So yeah, sometimes with this game, I feel like, like in a macro sense, there just weren't enough people rooting for it. Like I feel like if people had been rooting for it, a lot of the stuff that are complaints would have actually in strengths, Like I think the gun thing is one of those. And bear in mind, I'm sure if if those old episodes of my stream exist, they probably don't, but if they did, there's probably me being like, what the fuck with the weapon thing? Right, Like I'm sure that exists, right because it definitely frustrated me. But like, I do think the intentionality of it makes sense, and I think, I mean there's part of it to me that like culturally, when there's a tech thing, like we expect technology to always be sophisticated and smooth, Like that's just like a weird cultural expectation we have, and this game is creating tech that purposely frustrates you, so like it's a little bit harder for us to mentally download that that is true. So like, wait a minute, this is a futuristic gun, but it sucks, Like why would that be true? You know what I mean? Like, so maybe that missed a little bit. And I think when it's in a system like that, you know, like inventory management, it becomes I think, Yeah, we've just gotten so trained by games trying to you know, most like Triple A or not even Triple A, but like popular mainstream games try to make that quality of life for gamers as smooth as possible. So I think that's that's part. There's an expectation where we expect being able to just whip out whatever we want in our inventory as easily as possible, and when the game deliberately makes that kind of a pain in the ass, were like, what the game's wrong? Yeah, the game's wrong. See this game, I feel like, and again I'm not defending, it's not a perfect game. It's not dead Space, Like it's it's not dead space. Dead Space is a classic, and I don't think this game is, but I do feel like this game kind of couldn't win because, like it did try to innovate in a few very interesting ways, and like people kind of got on their case for it. Like I think the melee system is innovative, it's it's an attempt. I think this gun idea is innovative, and there are a few other things. But then to sort of counterbalance that they didn't innovate on the story structure or frankly, the camera point of view that like ninety percent of action games feel they need to be resumeval for now for some reason, like they they they didn't innovate in those areas, and they got dinged for that too. And it's one of those things where it's like, okay, so maybe they just made all the wrong choices about where to innovate and where not to innovate. But that is the kind of review that seems like, so you just didn't want to like this game, right, Like that's what it pulls down to. If that's your opinion. You wait, you just didn't want to like this game because you're not willing to give it any license to be what it is. You know, Um, I mean I don't. I'm not pushing back like against anyone in particular. I just feel like, look, you know, it's important to try to approach the game on the terms it's setting out. And the terms that it's setting out is we're trying to be in this lane. We're clearly connecting to these other games that we know exist, that you know exists, that we're all excited about, but also do a couple new things and see if you get into that. And our answer was no, right, that seems I don't know, it seems a little unfair to me. Yeah, it's sort of me if there's a there's a genre of podcast or or articles that I don't necessarily care for, where like the premises, let's drop someone in on the fourth Harry Potter movie, uh, and then and they having never seen or read any other Harry Potters and then have them try to like experience in that way and in very oh all the you know that's hanged together, Yeah, oh, these fias names and stuff, and it's like, well, you're not engaging the thing on its own terms, so like, of course it's going to all be stupid, like what So I think there might be an element of that to it, for sure, Um, there are I was I was gonna say that the controls, at least for there, they're a little strange, for the for the inventory management, like everything. The way the way that they've mapped things to the dpad is a little counterintuitive. Um. And there's not really there's no way to there's no like mission log um, which is also a choice. Um. But there's also no map again, which these are yeah, yeah, are all deliberate choices. So it's not like which doesn't super become much of a problem because the game is very linear. There's a few levels that have interesting side paths you can go on to get like a new weapon or a new upgrade, or some crafting materials or some junk. But it's pretty linear, so you don't really miss the inclusion of a map. Um. But I don't think I did. Yeah, I don't remember. I don't remember being like, what the fuck, where's the map? I don't remember ever feeling like that in this game. Yeah, I would have appreciated a mission log or like a little bit more detailed I don't know what are we doing right now? Right? Because yeah, yeah, exactly, like I can sort of recalibrate and get my bearings because you mentioned something before where it's like towards the end of the game, you sort of like start really thinking about what you're doing, just because it's it's repetitive in a lot of ways. So like I'll be in the midst of it, like, um, I don't feel that way, Like I never got tired of beating up monsters, throwing them into spikes, blast them apart, and shop like that, but I do get so mired in it that I forget what I'm doing. Yeah, kill and then kill them all the story, and the story is so basic, it's it's basically just it's so it's so it's kind of embarrassingly video gaming where it's so predictable. Where you get to a location, you meet a character, you immediately split up with that character because they say you have to go this will I have to go to this other location. Happens like that happens like six or seven times in the game. So I never really remembered what exactly I was doing. In terms of the story, I'm like, wait, why am I in the ship river? I thought I was going to a train. Maybe you were. They also have like the problem of like basically every narrative thing they decide to do is like based on the o Andi system, and you have to like learn what that is. Like it's a lot of teaching you what the beats mean, like like giving you a term or like a or giving you like a lower explanation of like why this beat matters. See, you never have like the visor, like, oh, I see they need to get a cop like and I know what that means. Like you never feel grounded enough to care about the things they're doing, you know, because it's all sci fi lower explanations and like that stuff again, Like I think that people think it's cool when it's on a spreadsheet, but in the experience of it, you can't get your heart around it. You can't care because you're too busy like learning acronyms and like trying to figure out what it would mean if this group of scientists was kicked out of the colony but lived on the surface, like what you know what I mean, Like just that kind of stuff you can't care about. I also think the narrative has a huge problem that contributed to that, which is it picked the wrong protagonist, and by wrong protagonists, I don't mean that the character that we play with is Josh. Is that his name? I forgot his name. The character's name is Jacob, Jacob, that's right, Jacob. It's not that he's bad. He's wonderfully performed. As you said, he's wonderfully rendered. It's one of the best looking captures of an actor's performance in any game. Like it's kind of underrated for that. But this is clearly Danny's story. Yes, it's her story. She's the one with the stakes in it. And it really felt to me like this is this is what people mean when they say like, oh, you have to have the white male protagonist. This is exactly the kind of like the situation where they're point where people should point that out, like we don't need this guy. He's clearly here to like because you think it's going to get people interested in the game more than if you picked this other Asian woman to be the hero. But it's her story, so like, let us see, we don't really ever learn anything about Jacob. No, he's no, he's he's pretty much just a blank slade. He's a proxy for the player. The most we learn is that he knowingly smuggled some bad shit for this company and that that's like a reveal, but that's like the most we ever learned about, and we learned way more about like his co pilot who dies in the beginning too about him and get haunted by his like by his unhinged jaw, the entire his his blasted meat face. Oh my gosh, you know. Okay, I mean hey, and look, I get it. It's a horror game that doesn't bother that that I was gonna say, that's an early moment that I really appreciated because it happens within the first eight minutes of you playing, so like right away the game is like, Okay, here's what you're going to be seeing. Right. This is, by the way, Like if anybody's like on the fence about whether to play it or not, you need to like gore to like this game. This game rebels in this era, Like this is a Gorehound game for sure. Yeah, maybe the most Gorehound game I've ever played. Uh. Next the PS three reboot of Splatterhouse. I think Splatterhouse is actually sillier than this game. It's it's silly, it is it's very silly. It's intentionally silly, but like it it's gory beyond belief. It's it's more like it's it's kind of more like Peter Jackson's Dead Alive slash Brain Dead, whereas this is this is more um something like a really gnarly Friday the thirteenth or like uh, darker event Horizon, I think, not not that dark, but like an Aliens movie like that kind of gory, but more gory, more gory than that. Actually, yeah, Eli Roth movie, Yeah, Roth, there you go. Now we're in the zone. There, there we are. It's not scary, as you said, but like it definitely thinks that you like seeing brains, you know, are in like blood and gore. Like if you don't like that, if if you're not into it, this is just the wrong game for you, you know. Yeah, it does to that point. It does the same thing that Dead Space does where it sort of rewards you when Jacob dies with like this extremely graphic death scene the Dead Space. Yes it was infamous for that as well. But yeah, so it's like you get to see little fatalities basically when you die, well so to return to the you're right, and and like that's clearly like you know, soposed to that right, it's clearly kind of this game's what this game's about. Yeah, right, And maybe that's why they chose to have this sort of this blank slate of a character that we're sort of seeing the world through, uh, you know, because then you don't get as upset about, you know, watching their head get ripped off or whatever. I'd be pretty upset watching Danny diet. I agree that would matter more so, like they would have to tone down the gorefest if they were going to tell a real story. And again, and that tells you they don't really want to tell a real story, you know, Like that's not that's not really their goal here. And like the case and point of that is the way the game ends. So like I don't want to spoil every little detail of it, but the one thing I will spoil is the very very ending where we think that our Jacob is going to die on Kalisto because they're basically doing a metroid where the place is going to go up and explode, and right is that it's about to happen. We get a phone call from uh doctor mcguffin whose name slipped out of my head, but doctor Maller. But mcguffin would be more appropriate. Yeah, that's what she is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a winter exposition. There's a way off the base said you can find it, and uh and like then it cuts to a scare and like that's it. So like clearly setting up a sequel when I feel like killing him would have been actually more interesting. Am I wrong? I might have liked that that might still happen. I know there's a few planned DLCs, and one is going to continue Jacob's story from the end of the game, and the other's going to continue Danny's story from the end of the game. So are you sure they're still going to happen? You know? I am no, I am not sure, okay, but I know that was the plan. Yeah, yeah, because I like, I have to wonder if this game is going to continue. It clearly thinks it's the beginning of a franchise. Is certainly supposed to be, and I've read I forget the exact number, but they had projected some kind of some absurd sales figure for this game, which was not realistic, and of course they didn't make it. So I don't know if the DLC is going to happen. That's a bomber. I mean, yeah, we haven't heard a word about it. That's a little bit of a bomber. Also, there's the possibility that the Dead Space remake just swallows it up entirely, because the Dead Space remake, I think is doing pretty well if I'm not mistaken, and I would assume it would, but I looked it up, so I don't know. They're very clearly going to do the second one, like they're going to remake the second one. If that's not already happening, I'd be shocked. And then they I think we might just get new Dead Spaces, you know, like we might get full on Dead Space reboot, which I would be excited about for sure. Yeah, anyway, that's not with this game, but just sort of the game is clearly trying to jockey for position to be the current version of that, and I think may have missed its chance. Yes, so the Resident Evil four camera, can we talk a little bit more about that? Do you mind? So? I don't know why we think that's such a great window to watch a game through, but in a game where you get really really close to your enemies the whole time, um, it's actually a problem because you can't see enough. Like, did you have that experience? I felt like I couldn't see enough to like grab stuff sometimes not at all. I didn't have that problem. Oh so this was it worked for you? Yeah, I guess I'm just I don't know. Um, there may have been a few moments where it was like I can't I wish I could like see a little bit better, But the camera was never an issue for me and my interest. Interesting. Yeah, okay, well that might just be my hinderance. I guess. Uh, like this is just my complaint to game designers, Like how about a cowboy? Like, give me a cowboy? You know, a cowboy is the size of a shot where I see a little bit of the thigh just enough to like, you know, see the fucking I want a little cowboy in space. Yeah, that's right, Like what I need to do, Just give me, send me a tiny little space cowboy. So you didn't get tired at all of the punch out. That worked for you the whole time, Other than it getting a little silly, Yeah, no, it gets really really satisfying the more you upgrade. And I actually feel like the upgrades you say you said they were punitive, and I agree, but for a different reason. I don't think they're inconsequential. But they are very expensive and you don't find a lot of money in this game, so you really have to hem and haw over which upgrades you want to get, and it's not immediately obvious how useful each one will be. I found each each one to be useful that I got um, particularly with the stun baton. You get some cool stuff with that, so I didn't get tired of just wail tattoo and dudes with this with this bat base an electric bat essentially, and it's great. Yeah, I think my complaint about it would be that it's not a very effective weapon when you first get it, and it's the only weapon you get for a pretty for a substantial amount of time. First level essentially, Yeah, I think even longer, but it's like the first half hour forty half hour, is that all much longer than I think? So, and then you get I think, so it's like it's like it's definitely within the first hour, but it is a while that you and in fact, you won't even get the stunt of time right away. You have a worse version of it. You have just like weird pipe, right, yes, yeah, And like I understand that that's grounded in the story they're telling, Like look, you're an escaped prisoner, you know, like they're not just gonna You're not just gonna find a gun, like I get it, you know, like you gotta just gonna John Matrix out of yourself, right, you know, And Okay, I can accept that. Um, it's just that, you know, uh, the Bogans are gross and they're super groups and I want my pipe to work doesn't and they're like god damn it. And you know, you just feel like your glass Joe out here and he's there, mister dream for a while. You know. It's just it's it's really uh. And I think there's a there's a certain cocktail that a game designer has to make for you to feel like, wow, this is worth it, even though it's hard. And I can see that they set the bar a little high. So there's a lot of people who are not going to say it's fun, Like, you know, I don't. I don't. I would agree. I don't think they always succeed in that balance. Yeah, Like a lot of the problems with this game. I feel like a couple of dials on a continuum would fix them. Like giving us more money would fix this game. Um, giving it like making the melee combat, like making you a little better at killing the dudes with melee stuff would make this game a little better. Uh, just a couple of things like that. You know, like if there was some kind of a dial, I feel like the game would would have been like an eighty five for everybody. Right, they have maybe they have patched two significant things. Uh since the game released. One of them, they definitely patched the amount of time it takes to switch your weapon. Yeah. Oh interesting, So they that so many people complained about it. Yeah, it's still it's still not instant. It still does take a second or two, but it's not as slow as it was, Okay. Um, And the other the other thing is just a straight up quality of life thing, is you can skip the Jacob's death scenes, um, if you've seen them already, because there's that kind of Yeah, there's a few that kind of go on for like eight or nine seconds. You're like, all right, you're I get it, Like right, I get it. Like murdering me yet again, Yeah you win. You know, Like the game's really doing Oulations game. But that is what you feel like end Zone dance on right, It's like making a poster and put your face on it, like I dunked on you fucker. It's like I get it, you're the game. Congratulations. Sure did oh look you ripped my face off again? Great? So those are those are two significant changes that they definitely patched. That is one of my favorite experiences in video games, though, is getting mad at the game for celebrating your death too much. Like that's the thing that only exists in video games, and uh, it's I feel like we all bond over it. That there's a guy for one of the challenge pits in the latest Horizon game, Forbidden West, where it's like he'll you kept losing. It was you had to fight two guys at once and they were cheap as hell, and when you would lose, he would be like, try again, try harder. So after like the third or fourth time, I'm sitting there scream at this game. Fuck you. Yeah, that's right, that's right at least, Like you know, I always like to use elden Ring because elden Ring is like the gentlest version of enemy triumphs over you. Uh, like at least they take the monsters do a little dance and shit, right, it's usually pretty anti claimactic, yeah in the Soul In the Souls games, I mean, it's infuriating, but it's never like, yeah, they're not doing the worm. Can you imagine like Millennium fucking stabs you to death for the fifty eighth time and then does like a little fucking pirouette and stuff. You're like, oh man, oh fuck you bro. This game is plenty. Like, I think it's also kind of the fun of it. This game doesn't mind dancing on your grave a little bit, you know, No, that's the point. Yes, it's yeah, that's part of it. So um. The only other gameplay thing that I wrote down that I definitely wanted to go into some more detail about is the weapon design in this game. And I don't I don't mean the switching piece. I think it's strange that this game's weapon choices were so limited, and I suspect that the reason for that is ultimately that they wanted the melee combat to be the primary experience. Like, yes, I think that the designer believes and I can't say for sure, but I think they believe this is a melee and to a degree, telekinesis game Like you're you're in the muck with with these guys. That's the goal, and these guns are really here to give you a mild reprieve, but not to replace that, right, Yeah, I think I think that's definitely true. In point of fact, there's like a combo system where you can wail on a guy for a couple of hits and then like a little radical will pop up on them, So if you press the fire button quickly enough, you'll shoot them with your gun for extra damage. So it does seem like the guns were super designed to be supplemental to your your your your beaten stick. I kind of think that, even though I'm sure they've got a lot of negative feedback and I don't know how they're going to internalize it. I kind of feel like the instinct here should be chased. Like I don't think they nailed it, Like, I don't think they created a loop that is satisfying as a new way to do melee combat that games can learn from. I don't think that happened here. It could. It could use a little more variety, for sure. Yeah, that's the problem with it is there's no, it doesn't have a strategic element to it. Um, it doesn't or it up. Yeah, I mean again, like you know, the Souls Born games are the ones that, for like Melee Combat, have created so much variety with the very simple tools they give you. And I think to really innovate in the way that this game wants to, it needs to go more in that direction where like the pacing and stuff is different and the the inputs are slightly different, you know. Um, but still but still good idea though, right, Like still good idea. Um, they may need to like not give you guns at all, you know what I mean, Like they might have to go that far maybe like one or two yeah, like just real you know, for for you to whip out. Because there are a few enemies in this game. There's like a sub boss and then the final boss that you absolutely have to shoot absolutely right. Um, there's there's this like two headed I think he's too it. Yeah, he's two headed, a sort of sub boss character that you fight a bunch where you you he if he if he touches you, you I want to hit kills. So you just have totch around him shoot him a bunch of times. Until he drops to his knees and then just beat the Christ out of him with your bat and then repeat that twice. You can break both of his heads. Yeah, there's one. They do work it into some enemies. There's one particular outing that's very reminiscent of the Giant Drill level. And I think it's dead space too, where like you're you're fighting him in this like big giant space where you're like, you know, trying to fight off other dudes and stuff. Yeah, you're in an elevator in this one. Yeah, but it was very reminiscent. And that fight was the place I got stuck the longest in this game. I think that was tough. Yeah, it was tough. I got I honestly, I got stuck on the end boss for the longest. Well. Well, it was another difficulty spike. And that's the thing a lot of games are doing. They're putting these final bosses where like, now you need to learn a few new skills, and it's like, no final boss should be should be the combination of everything we learned. Yeah, it's the hero's journey, man. It's like show me the new stuff you learned, show me the old stuff you were always good at you know, like it's hero's journey. Um, I think it is present in this in this final boss fight, it's just not immediately clear. I think that was my biggest issue. They didn't they didn't lay it out enough, so it was a little bit confusing. That's right. Yeah, I remember. I definitely, I definitely spent the first I don't know hour getting killed by this guy. Yeah, trying to figure out the room and the exact sort of I mean, and that's part of fighting a boss, but like trying to figure out the room, trying to figure out the different phases and exactly what I was supposed to do. Um, because it was not the game does not make it clear at all. This is still it is still a combination of like shooting, hitting, throwing things with telekinesis, using little exploding enemies on each other. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's right. It is. Maybe it's telling about how old we're getting, but like an hour's a long time on a boss fight, Like I just don't want to spend that amount of time, you sure, Yeah, there are some exceptions where it's like I get that that's what this game is, but like I in general, I want the game to announce. Yeah, it's like, I get it. That's the game always told me that's what it was going to be, So all right, fair enough, But I still get mad. Oh yeah, I still get mad. I get I'm not sure if I would get even matter if if they did little end zone dances and the Elder Ring, like if Margaret the fellowmen moon walked after killed me thrilled by the idea of it, though it's such a good idea, Like, I don't know if I would get more angry. I might, I might be delighted by those little fucking magma worms just like laying on their belly, like rubbing them like they're having a good time. Yeah, fuck them anyway, this is not an Elder Ring podcast, Chips, it sure does a bag of ruby tummy tummy. The last, just the last point I want to make about the weapons thing is I think that part of the reason why people didn't connect to the Melee, aside from the issues we said, is that again they're kind of going against the cultural xation that we have. So like when you give me a gun in a game, and I have a bat already, and then you give me a gun, I assume the gun is going to be an improvement over the bat, you know, and then every gun I get is going to be better than the last gun I got, or at least different, right, And in this case, I think that they knowingly didn't do that. I think what they did instead is like they wanted to spread out the playing field enough that people could find a way to enjoy the game if they weren't liking the main concept. Like I think this is like sort of a hedging their bets decision. And I mean, I don't know this, this is my this is me philosophying a little bit about it. But that's I think functionally what it became because it didn't it didn't innovate on guns the way Dead Space really did. Like Dead Space the first had great ideas for weapons, you know, they were really fun and they were story driven and they were interesting. And this was like, nah, pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, you get it. Basic stuff. And I'm guessing that that stuff's really only me there to make it so that if you're not loving the melee combat, there's another way to play the game, you know, maybe yeah, yeah, And I would say they might need to go all the way in if they want this franchise to really distinguish itself, you know, they might be cool more, more melee weapons too, different types. That's right. They need Yes, they need to think broader about what a melee weapon is, uh, and go all the way in with this concept because otherwise I think it's going to feel derivative and people are gonna pile on. You know. I do like how gritty just a bat is. Yeah, this game is the game is so grimy, but a lot of games have a grimy bat, you know what I mean? Like, this isn't the only ones true? Right that I don't need to go to Kalisto in the future to get a grimmy bat. You know, No, that's true. I got one in my end right now, whisked four hundred years. It's like you that's all I get. Yeah, that's it. Anyway to recover from the shock of only having a bat in the future, Tom and I are going to spend all of our precious money on a nail, putting that bat and come back and finish things up on the other side of a couple of ads. See you soon, and we're back, hopefully hopefully about the nail, because I did not go to the chaos. Oh I was putting all sorts of weird things on my bat. Oh good, good, Then you can go first down this hallway. Bottle caps, fish bottle caps. I guess they are kind of sharp sand, a little bit of sand. Oh yeah, yeah, some Tabasco sauce. You know that's texture pain. Yeah, yeah, you're giving them texture pain. The texture is the thing this game does better than I maybe any other game ever, if I had to pick one word for sure, Yeah, I think this is Like, like I said earlier, this is one of the best, if not the best looking games I've ever played. And when we say that, what we mean is that like it's creating reality, Like this place feels more real than basically any other video game place I can think of. Like it's not the it's not the best designed game visually, Like you know, Horizon Forbidden West looms pretty large in that category. Um sure, or you know Godawar Ragnarok, if that's your thing, whatever, whatever version of that you like. This game chose to be beautiful, yes, but to create an aesthetic that was absolutely almost photographically rendered, and it's really well done, you know, so well done to them. Yeah, I think it's time, Tom. I think it's time that we pass that final checkpoint and get right into keeper delete. Uh, you know you have a full vote. You know you know you have a tea here to the power. Yeah, you know I have. I can I can stick this little key in here, Yeah, you can. I just I'm just kind of rubbing it around the edge right now. It's warmer than slide this key. So what are you gonna do with this power? I mean, I mean, honestly delete. It's like he said, like you said, it's not a classic. It's I like it. Um. I am glad that I owned this game. I will probably play it through a few more times. If they make more, I will play those games as well. But it's not like you said, it's not dead Space. It's it exists too much in dead Space's shadow. I think, yeah, yeah, you've proven why you deserve the key, Tom, because you've used it responsibly this day. I also am going to delete this game. I think the reason, and I kind of feel like we both knew that we would, But I think the reason it deserved to be covered is that it actually is a bit of an innovative game in some ways, like it's super derivative in all the ways that we said. But I respect any game that's trying to do something on an interesting and new and this game did do that. You know. Yeah, it's it's super fun. Yeah it is. It's so it's so satisfying, it is this game. Yeah, if you're a person that, like, you know, loves practical effects, you know what I mean, Like if you're if you're one of those those gore hounds like that, you'll never find a game you like better than this, Like it's right in there. Yeah for you. You know, well, Tom, we loved having you. What a thrill. Hey thanks, Yeah, man, I loved to be here. Yeah, you've filled in admirably when we were micleish. Where can we find and enjoy your content in the future, which I know we all will want to do. Oh hey, well listen. I co host and own a podcast network with my buddy and former Crack co worker David Belton. It's been on the show before. Oh yeah, um, Gamefully Unemployed. You can check it out on Apple or or wherever you get your podcasts. And also we have a Patreon, Patreon dot com slash Gamefully Unemployed, where we have a couple of exclusive podcasts. We do movie nights with our patrons. You can uh commission your own podcast series about pretty much whatever you want. We got a lot of cool stuff over there. Um And we actually just started a video game podcast called scream Play that's specifically about horror video games. Is hosted by me and my brother um and we covered this game but from a different angle from the from the how scary is at angle basically, So check all that stuff out. I want to be on that. I want to you want, I want to come on and scream into that podcast if if I'm I'm sure, If I'm sure, I'd love to. Yeah, absolutely, anytime. That'd be great. I love. Actually, horror games are I'm realizing, like pretty high up in my list of game genres. Like Yeah, I think one of one of the things we sort of talk about in the show is a horror is or rather video games is a great a great um platform. Yeah, media, what am I thinking? Medium for horror medium? There is a great medium for horror because as you experience it, Yes, so the stuff that doesn't seem as scary in a movie, like the simple the simple fact of being chased by something not as scary in a movie, But when you're playing a game like the Resident Evil two remake, for example, or like Alien Isolation, when you're completely powerless and this horrible monster is chasing you down, it's scary. Yeah, Like a video game can make that ridiculous asshole mister X from Resideval three, the trench coated mutant into a legitimately terrifying experience the whole time. Yeah you know this the gigantic basketball biker zombie. Yeah with a noir trench Yeah. Yeah, I mean stupid looking, fucking creature, but also legitimately terrifying. By the way, Tom, Resideval like that might be one of my favorite video game franchise. I'm starting to realize every time I go, yeah, they're really good. It's like, you know what, this franchise has been underrated at this point. Um, it's it's really good. Um Anyway, Yeah, I was gonna say I think they took too much of a hit for Resident Evil six. Like a lot of people super didn't like that one. Yeah okay, um, and yeah, like I this mean this may just be me remembering it, but I feel like a whole lot of people were super down on Resident Evil after that sixth game came out, and yet the seventh the one is a fucking home run, like the seventh one is its great? Yeah, it's so good. Yeah, even eight is very stupid, but it's but it's also really good. Like anyway, Uh, Resident Resident Evil, maybe as a series deserves a one obsmanship Like I like all the games individually, and we could talk about them all individually, and we probably will. But I also think once in a while a series kind of deserves a conversation like what does it mean? Um? And Resident Evil is important in video games? Uh, for a lot of reasons. That's neither here nor there. My friend, you were excellent as always. I'm so glad. We let's talk about this. So were you, buddy, Thank you, thank you. You can't hear that enough. We're two excellent dudes. We are just the best. We would have been the best Calisto protocols if it had been in a space prison, had been the protocols. If it had been us, we would have survived that space prison. Uh. Let me get my cowboy hat in my tabasco bat. I really do need a cowboy. Perhaps some designers listening will sat my cowboy. In any case, see it next time. Ship Heads on one upsmanship complete
Speaker 1: Oh, nothing. You should know. I thought of you immediately when I was playing this game. I was like, this is this is some Tom shit, if ever there was Tom shit, it's this one. Why what about it? Well, okay, I'll tell you a few thinks, Like so one of them is that HI know you love Dead Space. It's always the show. You never know when the show starts here, you can never tell, You can never tell. Welcome to one OPSD Ship. This is Adam Ganzier, one of your hosts. Mike is out today, but joining us the most qualified person I can imagine guest co hosting this episode. Introduce yourself, Sir, I'm tom My name. Now you are? That's my name? Sure you are. So I'm gonna tell you why I thought of you. So, first of all, I know, like you're the dead Space guy, Like that's your like to me, like you're that guy. But also, uh, there was something about the way, like the sort of tone of this that I just kind of thought you would super dig. Yeah, like the sort of the low, the low simmering vibe of this game Colosto protocol that I thought you would super dig. Was I totally wrong about that? No, you were totally right, yeah. Yeah. I've played through this game two and a half times, and I'm just shit. Every time I play through it, I'm just vibing the hell out. I'm just like yeah, yeah, like cruising on a crunchy groove. It is a crunchy game too. It is very crunchy. That is one of the top words I would use to describe it. Yeah, somehow. Also, squishy is another top word. It's a little breaky. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, little, a little snappy. Yeah, this thing's not You're you're not gonna come out clean from this episode, ship Heads, Like you're gonna get a little dirty in this one, because you're gonna be climbing through some viscera. You're gonna be stained. There's a lot of poop. There is a much more poop than you may expect when you first boot the game up. I'm gonna go ahead and say much more than I needed. They still delivered. Yeah, they delivered the poop. They delivered it. There's an amount I needed there. Like, we're gonna double that minute we go right past, We're not even gonna look at it. We're just gonna zoom right by that. Like we're like we're a truck blasting by a way station. We're gonna hurl you spike first right into all that poop, actually right right into it. So okay, Well, if you haven't if you haven't read the title or listened to any words we've said so far, today's episode of One Optionship is going to be about, I think the largely mixed reviewed game Callisto Protocol, which was released in December of twenty twenty two. Uh just there were mixed vibes on this game critically. I don't want to get too far ahead, but that feel like that's true? Yeah, well, I mean I'm gonna let you do the auspicious honor of doing the tell me like imt bit part. So actually, let's just pass our first checkpoint and jump right into that. Time to feel up to that, Adam, I can't wait. I've been waiting, and I've been waiting all day to tell you like you're eight months. We've been waiting for the months to throw this in your face. You ate fool, hurl away, sir. Okay, So Callisto Protocol. You play a it's it's in the distant future. I forget what you're exactly. You play a guy named Jacob, who's like, you know, a freelance uh cargo spaceship flyer um and Reese. He's been flying missions to and from two moons of Jupiter. One of them is I Forget, but there's like a city on it, and you know, like a normal futuristic blade to interspace city. On the other moon, Callisto is a prison planet and on a job there, he gets ambushed sort of. They get boarded by the leader of this quote unquote terrorist organization and the ship crashes back down in Callisto. She gets taken into custody, but so does your character Jacob, and he's thrown in the middle of this mystery. As as he's thrown into this prison, some huge breakout happens. You're not sure what's going on, but all of a sudden, there's chaos all through the prison. There's monsters all about Boogins and Boggins crawling him to the floor and ceiling, and you have to make your way through this prison, try to escape and get off the planet, and also try to uncover the mystery of what's going on on this prison. And that's that's pretty much it. That's pretty mu shit. Yeah, I totally agree, I should. I should describe what the game is, right, Oh yeah, that would be Sorry, I forgot exactly. I just gave you a plot description. It's a third person action game kind of survival horrory made by the one of the lead creative director of the original Dead Space, glenscoe Field. So it has a whole lot in common with Dead Space. It shares a lot of the same DNA controls, largely the same except for the new edition of this melee system, a lot of the fighting you do in the game as opposed to there's not very many weapons. There's only about four or five guns. You do most of your fighting with this big old stick, this stunt baton, and you get to do cool combos and standard kind of survival horror stuff. You start out pretty bleak and pretty desperate, and you get powered up as the game goes on, and you can do multiple playthroughs. Like a lot of other survivor horror, survival horror games tend to sort of play around in the speed running space, so there's like a reward for you to continue playing this game over and over again, so you get more unlocks and really go ham on some of these monsters. Yeah, I can see that that makes perfect sense. That was beautifully done. Thank you, absolutely, just what a gorgeous confused and rambling, but I'm glad. I no, it was gorgeous. It was intact. It was not a ship monster, though there will be many of those display for us today. So I'm going to pass our next checkpoint, which means it's time for us to get into the hot takes that we are each going to give about how we feel about this game. Um, I'll tell you right up top really quick before I even give mine. Mike hated this game. Mike and I were completely talking about it, which is why I wanted to do this episode when he wasn't here, so that you and I can have talk about the game without that anicious pain. I knew he hated it, yeah it, he hated this game. Yeah, So I'm cheating them the way that I often do. So when when the when the cats away, the mice will play. That's what they will That's the first game they'll play. Yeah, that's the first thing there. Their little mice hands will pull off the shelf. It'll blow their fucking mice brains out. They gotta stand on each other. It's my shoulders to put the disk in this story. I'm like, in the story we're pitching here, Yeah, okay, player one Adam Ganzer plug it in. Okay. So I just want to say this game got a sixty nine on Metacritic, like meaning that's that's the the collective consensus, and the game itself often feels to me like like they were sort of desperate to get it out before the Dead Space remake came out. Um, just because there are pieces of it to feel a little bit rushed. I'm sure that it couldn't be that uh, it couldn't be that granular of a problem that they knew for sure the Dead Space remake was coming out, But it does like there's there were little pieces of polish that we're missing. I thought this game was underrated by people who like by the critical consensus. I thought it was actually pretty fun. I do not think it's great, in part because I don't think it is innovating anything, but I do think it takes some fun risks. One of those risks is it decided to include Mike Tyson's punch Out as it's like feature combat Loop, which is m I'm gonna go ahead and say a pretty ballsy swing. It really is. It's a ballsy swing, and it's kind of fun for a little while. The problem with this is that it wears a little thin, and after a bit you start to think about what you're doing because it's a little bit thin and you feel the silliness of it. So it kind of ends up undermining the vibe of the game, at least for me. I'm sure there's some people who would never have that problem. But you know, after eight hours of like bobbing and we even, like Mike Tyson something from these you know, it's like or soda poppin ski or something like. It's like, I mean, I'm glad these aren't racist monsters I'm killing. But also there's a little stupid you know what I mean, Uh, it's a little stupid. So it just makes you a little bit aware of that. Um the storytelling. I think the story here wasn't bad, but the problem is that they condensed almost all of it into the third act, so like, we really didn't get a lot of story here for a very long time. We got sort of mystery box horse shit and needless conflict. That was for about six hours of the game where we're not really coming into a clearer view of what is actually going on in this place, like why are there monsters? Why did they let the monsters out in the prison. Like these kind of questions don't get answered until about six seven hours into the into the narrative time of an eight hour game, and I just think that's a mistake. I think that we needed the mid point of the game basically to kind of have the premise of it more clear than it is. Um. But that said, I don't think we're in the four spoken territory where the plot is really really dumb and bad. I think we're in the territory where like it's just not very artfully done, um, and so it's not impactful. I think that's the key problem here. Vibe wise, this game couldn't be more of a gans game, like like give me the squishes, man, give me give me these a dusty yeah, pour some squishes on me, my dudes. Uh, it's super viby, man. And like if you want to, like if you want to play Dead Space again, but you've played Dead Space again and you're like, man, I wish there was more of it. This is gonna hit scratch that itch, you know, like, uh, I don't I miss some of the creativity of dead Space, Like I don't think the puzzling is here, really, I don't think the weapons are as interesting as they were in dead Space for me, Like, you know, the collection of guns are pretty whatever, um, and the leveling up as a little bit punitive, Like you never you don't make a lot of meaningful leveling up decisions, I would say for a pretty long time. So like, I know that sounds like a lot of negative stuff, but that's like, I really think that's the harshest critique you can level at it. Otherwise, it's a pretty fun game, you Like, it's pretty fun, like hurling a ship monster into a spiky wall of which there are perhaps infinite spent throughout this fun it stays fun the whole time. If you don't like doing that, why did you buy this game? If you do like doing that, congratulations, you've purchased the correct game. That's my rant. Nice rant, well done, thank you, well thank you. Okay, okay, player too, tom Ryman plugging in here, Okay, get this beat beat boots in there. Um. I also think this game is really fun. I'm a huge dead Space fan, which if you've been listening to the show for a while, you probably know that. Um, and I just I like the core gameplayer this. I thought the Melee edition was pretty cool. It took a little bit getting used to. At first, it was it threw me off for a little bit. Um. But as you get into it, and especially as you start unlocking some of the upgrades for the stun baton where you can get, for example, one that if the monster tries to block your swing, you'll just break their arm. That is so satisfying. Oh yeah, you've got the Canesis grab like you do in Dead Space. They call it a grip in this game, where you can pick up the boogins and throw them at all sorts of ship that is no business being in a prison like so many giant fans, so many spike walls. Um, there's a giant harvester in one level yep ye where it's like grinding up trees to create the atmosphere. I guess, um, you and you you bet your sweet little space cheeks you can throw monsters into that thing. I thought the just the general gameplay, uh is super fun. Um, It's very satisfying. It's very visceral. This is an incredible looking game, one of the best looking games I've ever played. The level of detail and resolution on specifically the environments are it's so finely detailed, so it really it really helps with that vibe. This like kind of spooky simmerin, kind of grim kind of grimy vibe, like a grimy sci fi horror vibe that I really dig. I agree that the guns are not anywhere near as interesting as they are in Dead Space. I don't mind that as much. There's a mechanic with the guns that got a lot of heat when this game came out, where it's when you switch weapons. The conceit is your character Jacob. He has basically two frames and you three D print guns to put onto those frames. So every time you change a weapon, you have to take apart the frame and put the new gun onto it. So it takes a little bit. It takes a couple of seconds, like not a couple of seconds. It takes maybe like a second or two to switch your weapon, which is an eternity if you're in the middle of a fight. Now, the game got a lot of heat for that, but I think that's a deliberate I mean, obviously it's a deliberate choice. They programmed it in there, and it's sort of on its face, it seems like counterintuitive to like quality of life for gamers. Obviously, you want to be able to switch your weapons as fast as you can, just you know, to make it a more satisfying and more fair seeming gameplay system. However, having it be designing the system so that you can't really switch your weapons on the drop of a hat, I think adds a whole lot to the immersion and the vibes of it, because you're supposed to be trapped in this horrible space prison with all these monsters, and you can't really pull out your biggest gun whenever you want to on the fly. You have to sort of think a little bit ahead, and you can't really do it in the middle of a huge fight, so you have to kind of like pick your moments when you want to do that. So I sort of compare it to like how there's no real fast travel system in like Red Dead Redemption too, and like traveling from one place to another, and Red Dead takes a long time, but that's on purpose because so much the game is about the traversal. So I think it's a similar decision in this game, where so much of what this game is about the immersion and the vibes. So, like, I think that's a great vibe choice and also doesn't matter as much because you if an enemy gets into your personal space, you just knock the Bejesus out of him with your stunt baton. Related to the vibes, I love the vibes of this game. We've said that word so many times. Uh, the game is not scary at all. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it really isn't. And I like in that to not like in that. I credit a lot of that to what you were saying about the melee system. I totally agree. Like it's like, I don't care if a monster gets close to me, because if he does, I'm going to beat the shit out of him, just ruthlessly, mercilessly beat his ass with a with a stunt baton like jose canseco. Um. So it's not very scary, um, but I do. I do love the vibe and I love the immersion. It's also I'm a little I'm gonna come down a little bit harder on the plot than than you. I totally agree. I totally agree with it is it is very much backloaded, where everything happens in the span of like ninety minutes in the end of the game. UM. I also thought that the plot, which is kind of it's it's very extremely derivative of Dead Space. It's basically just dead Space again, where not to not to spoil too much, but it's it's the same idea of like this cult that's obsessed with eternal life and they found this alien boogin thing that they think will make them live forever, but really it just turns everybody into burger monsters. Um and, which is pretty much what Dead Space is about. Um So it felt kind of derivative and a little like, oh, he just kind of did the same thing. Like they even call the enemy's biophages in this game, and in Dead Space are called necrophages. Um So yeah, I was. I was kind of let down by the plot. Um However, I think the acting is really good. Uh specifically um Josh dumal is as the main character, where you can kind of tell he's just like when you get like a movie star to be the lead. You know, he's not a huge star, but he's been on a lot of movies and a lot of big movies. Um, you can just like he he just sells it a whole lot. I don't really know how to describe it other than you can tell that this is a person who's like a little bit of a higher caliber than an actor they might normally get to be the lead in a game like this, So like, he really makes you feel every gruesome death that you happen to stumble into. And just like he really helps sell the the immersion and and the vibe. And then obviously Karen Fukuhara from The Boys is the leader of the terrorists and she's great. Um. And then the bad guy is Sam Whitwer playing this crazed captain of the Guards, and he he's not in it that much, but he makes some bold choices with his performance entertaining. Yeah, it is extremely entertaining. But yeah, so all in all, you know, it's it's a little jankie in some spots. Um, I not. I appreciate that it's not very long. Like I said, this falls into a category of game for me that I like to play over and over again and try to speed run, you know, like the original Resident Evils. You get a rating based on how quickly you can beat it, and that sort of extends into this game and in the original Dead Space as well, which I've beaten multiple times. And I've already beaten this game two and a half times, so I'll probably play it a bunch more. I just I dig the gameplay. I dig being in this universe, even if the stories lackluster and there's some and it's not very scary, Like the game doesn't scare me at all. Anyway, rant Over loved it. Some good stuff for us to talk about, because there are a couple like continuums of when should this bother you that I kind of want to talk about. Sure, uh, that's great, but let's save those until the other side of the break. And so grab your stun baton and you know, the piece of the gun that you need to always have, that's right, and uh, we'll we'll, we'll get all strapped up for the bogans that are coming our way right after this. Strap it on and we're back. Hey, are somehow I'm not going to jab my gun this time? By how many times did you screw up the gun switch because of the system they create it, I still screw it up. Yeah, yes, I still screw it up. Too. Uh, And it's actually the first thing I want to talk about when we pass our next checkpoint and get into a game on where all opinions are welcome, though not equally good, and all interruptions are tolerated. So I guess my first question for you, sir. That sounds like a challenge. You know how I do it. My first question for you, sir, is, so you compared the gun system to Red Dead too, right? Yeah? Yeah, and I get that comparison. It made intense and intense. Yes, in intent, I agree, it makes sense. And in that game, we forgave the inconvenience that it created by slowing down our operation systems because we saw the intent. So why do you think we didn't this time? Because I think it's very clearly intentional too. I don't think that's a mistake. You know, it's clearly intentional. Why do you think people didn't forgive it this time? I'm not sure? Okay, I think um, I'm honestly not sure. I think my immediate guests would be the pay off is admittedly not as rewarding like the experience of riding on your horse through the world of Red Dead two is so cool and so unforgettable. It's a great, great experience. You just it's not the reward is not on the same level of I can't switch my guns very fast, so therefore it is scarier and a little more tense, like each firefight's more tense. I just think it's it's more subtle. It's not as loud of a thing, so it can feel I think the intent can be missed because especially with a game like this, where it is sort of like a close up, kind of in your face action horror game, people probably are used to that being kind of buttery smooth, even though it comes from Resident Evil, which is notoriously clunky on purpose the original ones. Anyway, that's right, So I think I don't know, I think that's that probably has something to do with it. It's it's a little more subtle, it's not as it's not as rewarding. And also I think people just you know, we're we're drinking the Red Dead kool aid and wanted to you know, just praise whatever. Yeah, whereas this game was already kind of shaky out of the gate um. You know, it's it's a brand new ip. It's not a very popular genre, is that true? It seems like it should be a popular genre. Yeah. You maybe maybe I'm talking out of my ass. Yeah, but I feel like I feel let me, let me, let me rephrase that it's a more it's a more niche genre. M yeah, I see that that makes sense. Like not like I think the horror turns a lot of people off because the horror games are intense, so people don't like that experience sometimes. So yeah, sometimes with this game, I feel like, like in a macro sense, there just weren't enough people rooting for it. Like I feel like if people had been rooting for it, a lot of the stuff that are complaints would have actually in strengths, Like I think the gun thing is one of those. And bear in mind, I'm sure if if those old episodes of my stream exist, they probably don't, but if they did, there's probably me being like, what the fuck with the weapon thing? Right, Like I'm sure that exists, right because it definitely frustrated me. But like, I do think the intentionality of it makes sense, and I think, I mean there's part of it to me that like culturally, when there's a tech thing, like we expect technology to always be sophisticated and smooth, Like that's just like a weird cultural expectation we have, and this game is creating tech that purposely frustrates you, so like it's a little bit harder for us to mentally download that that is true. So like, wait a minute, this is a futuristic gun, but it sucks, Like why would that be true? You know what I mean? Like, so maybe that missed a little bit. And I think when it's in a system like that, you know, like inventory management, it becomes I think, Yeah, we've just gotten so trained by games trying to you know, most like Triple A or not even Triple A, but like popular mainstream games try to make that quality of life for gamers as smooth as possible. So I think that's that's part. There's an expectation where we expect being able to just whip out whatever we want in our inventory as easily as possible, and when the game deliberately makes that kind of a pain in the ass, were like, what the game's wrong? Yeah, the game's wrong. See this game, I feel like, and again I'm not defending, it's not a perfect game. It's not dead Space, Like it's it's not dead space. Dead Space is a classic, and I don't think this game is, but I do feel like this game kind of couldn't win because, like it did try to innovate in a few very interesting ways, and like people kind of got on their case for it. Like I think the melee system is innovative, it's it's an attempt. I think this gun idea is innovative, and there are a few other things. But then to sort of counterbalance that they didn't innovate on the story structure or frankly, the camera point of view that like ninety percent of action games feel they need to be resumeval for now for some reason, like they they they didn't innovate in those areas, and they got dinged for that too. And it's one of those things where it's like, okay, so maybe they just made all the wrong choices about where to innovate and where not to innovate. But that is the kind of review that seems like, so you just didn't want to like this game, right, Like that's what it pulls down to. If that's your opinion. You wait, you just didn't want to like this game because you're not willing to give it any license to be what it is. You know, Um, I mean I don't. I'm not pushing back like against anyone in particular. I just feel like, look, you know, it's important to try to approach the game on the terms it's setting out. And the terms that it's setting out is we're trying to be in this lane. We're clearly connecting to these other games that we know exist, that you know exists, that we're all excited about, but also do a couple new things and see if you get into that. And our answer was no, right, that seems I don't know, it seems a little unfair to me. Yeah, it's sort of me if there's a there's a genre of podcast or or articles that I don't necessarily care for, where like the premises, let's drop someone in on the fourth Harry Potter movie, uh, and then and they having never seen or read any other Harry Potters and then have them try to like experience in that way and in very oh all the you know that's hanged together, Yeah, oh, these fias names and stuff, and it's like, well, you're not engaging the thing on its own terms, so like, of course it's going to all be stupid, like what So I think there might be an element of that to it, for sure, Um, there are I was I was gonna say that the controls, at least for there, they're a little strange, for the for the inventory management, like everything. The way the way that they've mapped things to the dpad is a little counterintuitive. Um. And there's not really there's no way to there's no like mission log um, which is also a choice. Um. But there's also no map again, which these are yeah, yeah, are all deliberate choices. So it's not like which doesn't super become much of a problem because the game is very linear. There's a few levels that have interesting side paths you can go on to get like a new weapon or a new upgrade, or some crafting materials or some junk. But it's pretty linear, so you don't really miss the inclusion of a map. Um. But I don't think I did. Yeah, I don't remember. I don't remember being like, what the fuck, where's the map? I don't remember ever feeling like that in this game. Yeah, I would have appreciated a mission log or like a little bit more detailed I don't know what are we doing right now? Right? Because yeah, yeah, exactly, like I can sort of recalibrate and get my bearings because you mentioned something before where it's like towards the end of the game, you sort of like start really thinking about what you're doing, just because it's it's repetitive in a lot of ways. So like I'll be in the midst of it, like, um, I don't feel that way, Like I never got tired of beating up monsters, throwing them into spikes, blast them apart, and shop like that, but I do get so mired in it that I forget what I'm doing. Yeah, kill and then kill them all the story, and the story is so basic, it's it's basically just it's so it's so it's kind of embarrassingly video gaming where it's so predictable. Where you get to a location, you meet a character, you immediately split up with that character because they say you have to go this will I have to go to this other location. Happens like that happens like six or seven times in the game. So I never really remembered what exactly I was doing. In terms of the story, I'm like, wait, why am I in the ship river? I thought I was going to a train. Maybe you were. They also have like the problem of like basically every narrative thing they decide to do is like based on the o Andi system, and you have to like learn what that is. Like it's a lot of teaching you what the beats mean, like like giving you a term or like a or giving you like a lower explanation of like why this beat matters. See, you never have like the visor, like, oh, I see they need to get a cop like and I know what that means. Like you never feel grounded enough to care about the things they're doing, you know, because it's all sci fi lower explanations and like that stuff again, Like I think that people think it's cool when it's on a spreadsheet, but in the experience of it, you can't get your heart around it. You can't care because you're too busy like learning acronyms and like trying to figure out what it would mean if this group of scientists was kicked out of the colony but lived on the surface, like what you know what I mean, Like just that kind of stuff you can't care about. I also think the narrative has a huge problem that contributed to that, which is it picked the wrong protagonist, and by wrong protagonists, I don't mean that the character that we play with is Josh. Is that his name? I forgot his name. The character's name is Jacob, Jacob, that's right, Jacob. It's not that he's bad. He's wonderfully performed. As you said, he's wonderfully rendered. It's one of the best looking captures of an actor's performance in any game. Like it's kind of underrated for that. But this is clearly Danny's story. Yes, it's her story. She's the one with the stakes in it. And it really felt to me like this is this is what people mean when they say like, oh, you have to have the white male protagonist. This is exactly the kind of like the situation where they're point where people should point that out, like we don't need this guy. He's clearly here to like because you think it's going to get people interested in the game more than if you picked this other Asian woman to be the hero. But it's her story, so like, let us see, we don't really ever learn anything about Jacob. No, he's no, he's he's pretty much just a blank slade. He's a proxy for the player. The most we learn is that he knowingly smuggled some bad shit for this company and that that's like a reveal, but that's like the most we ever learned about, and we learned way more about like his co pilot who dies in the beginning too about him and get haunted by his like by his unhinged jaw, the entire his his blasted meat face. Oh my gosh, you know. Okay, I mean hey, and look, I get it. It's a horror game that doesn't bother that that I was gonna say, that's an early moment that I really appreciated because it happens within the first eight minutes of you playing, so like right away the game is like, Okay, here's what you're going to be seeing. Right. This is, by the way, Like if anybody's like on the fence about whether to play it or not, you need to like gore to like this game. This game rebels in this era, Like this is a Gorehound game for sure. Yeah, maybe the most Gorehound game I've ever played. Uh. Next the PS three reboot of Splatterhouse. I think Splatterhouse is actually sillier than this game. It's it's silly, it is it's very silly. It's intentionally silly, but like it it's gory beyond belief. It's it's more like it's it's kind of more like Peter Jackson's Dead Alive slash Brain Dead, whereas this is this is more um something like a really gnarly Friday the thirteenth or like uh, darker event Horizon, I think, not not that dark, but like an Aliens movie like that kind of gory, but more gory, more gory than that. Actually, yeah, Eli Roth movie, Yeah, Roth, there you go. Now we're in the zone. There, there we are. It's not scary, as you said, but like it definitely thinks that you like seeing brains, you know, are in like blood and gore. Like if you don't like that, if if you're not into it, this is just the wrong game for you, you know. Yeah, it does to that point. It does the same thing that Dead Space does where it sort of rewards you when Jacob dies with like this extremely graphic death scene the Dead Space. Yes it was infamous for that as well. But yeah, so it's like you get to see little fatalities basically when you die, well so to return to the you're right, and and like that's clearly like you know, soposed to that right, it's clearly kind of this game's what this game's about. Yeah, right, And maybe that's why they chose to have this sort of this blank slate of a character that we're sort of seeing the world through, uh, you know, because then you don't get as upset about, you know, watching their head get ripped off or whatever. I'd be pretty upset watching Danny diet. I agree that would matter more so, like they would have to tone down the gorefest if they were going to tell a real story. And again, and that tells you they don't really want to tell a real story, you know, Like that's not that's not really their goal here. And like the case and point of that is the way the game ends. So like I don't want to spoil every little detail of it, but the one thing I will spoil is the very very ending where we think that our Jacob is going to die on Kalisto because they're basically doing a metroid where the place is going to go up and explode, and right is that it's about to happen. We get a phone call from uh doctor mcguffin whose name slipped out of my head, but doctor Maller. But mcguffin would be more appropriate. Yeah, that's what she is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a winter exposition. There's a way off the base said you can find it, and uh and like then it cuts to a scare and like that's it. So like clearly setting up a sequel when I feel like killing him would have been actually more interesting. Am I wrong? I might have liked that that might still happen. I know there's a few planned DLCs, and one is going to continue Jacob's story from the end of the game, and the other's going to continue Danny's story from the end of the game. So are you sure they're still going to happen? You know? I am no, I am not sure, okay, but I know that was the plan. Yeah, yeah, because I like, I have to wonder if this game is going to continue. It clearly thinks it's the beginning of a franchise. Is certainly supposed to be, and I've read I forget the exact number, but they had projected some kind of some absurd sales figure for this game, which was not realistic, and of course they didn't make it. So I don't know if the DLC is going to happen. That's a bomber. I mean, yeah, we haven't heard a word about it. That's a little bit of a bomber. Also, there's the possibility that the Dead Space remake just swallows it up entirely, because the Dead Space remake, I think is doing pretty well if I'm not mistaken, and I would assume it would, but I looked it up, so I don't know. They're very clearly going to do the second one, like they're going to remake the second one. If that's not already happening, I'd be shocked. And then they I think we might just get new Dead Spaces, you know, like we might get full on Dead Space reboot, which I would be excited about for sure. Yeah, anyway, that's not with this game, but just sort of the game is clearly trying to jockey for position to be the current version of that, and I think may have missed its chance. Yes, so the Resident Evil four camera, can we talk a little bit more about that? Do you mind? So? I don't know why we think that's such a great window to watch a game through, but in a game where you get really really close to your enemies the whole time, um, it's actually a problem because you can't see enough. Like, did you have that experience? I felt like I couldn't see enough to like grab stuff sometimes not at all. I didn't have that problem. Oh so this was it worked for you? Yeah, I guess I'm just I don't know. Um, there may have been a few moments where it was like I can't I wish I could like see a little bit better, But the camera was never an issue for me and my interest. Interesting. Yeah, okay, well that might just be my hinderance. I guess. Uh, like this is just my complaint to game designers, Like how about a cowboy? Like, give me a cowboy? You know, a cowboy is the size of a shot where I see a little bit of the thigh just enough to like, you know, see the fucking I want a little cowboy in space. Yeah, that's right, Like what I need to do, Just give me, send me a tiny little space cowboy. So you didn't get tired at all of the punch out. That worked for you the whole time, Other than it getting a little silly, Yeah, no, it gets really really satisfying the more you upgrade. And I actually feel like the upgrades you say you said they were punitive, and I agree, but for a different reason. I don't think they're inconsequential. But they are very expensive and you don't find a lot of money in this game, so you really have to hem and haw over which upgrades you want to get, and it's not immediately obvious how useful each one will be. I found each each one to be useful that I got um, particularly with the stun baton. You get some cool stuff with that, so I didn't get tired of just wail tattoo and dudes with this with this bat base an electric bat essentially, and it's great. Yeah, I think my complaint about it would be that it's not a very effective weapon when you first get it, and it's the only weapon you get for a pretty for a substantial amount of time. First level essentially, Yeah, I think even longer, but it's like the first half hour forty half hour, is that all much longer than I think? So, and then you get I think, so it's like it's like it's definitely within the first hour, but it is a while that you and in fact, you won't even get the stunt of time right away. You have a worse version of it. You have just like weird pipe, right, yes, yeah, And like I understand that that's grounded in the story they're telling, Like look, you're an escaped prisoner, you know, like they're not just gonna You're not just gonna find a gun, like I get it, you know, like you gotta just gonna John Matrix out of yourself, right, you know, And Okay, I can accept that. Um, it's just that, you know, uh, the Bogans are gross and they're super groups and I want my pipe to work doesn't and they're like god damn it. And you know, you just feel like your glass Joe out here and he's there, mister dream for a while. You know. It's just it's it's really uh. And I think there's a there's a certain cocktail that a game designer has to make for you to feel like, wow, this is worth it, even though it's hard. And I can see that they set the bar a little high. So there's a lot of people who are not going to say it's fun, Like, you know, I don't. I don't. I would agree. I don't think they always succeed in that balance. Yeah, Like a lot of the problems with this game. I feel like a couple of dials on a continuum would fix them. Like giving us more money would fix this game. Um, giving it like making the melee combat, like making you a little better at killing the dudes with melee stuff would make this game a little better. Uh, just a couple of things like that. You know, like if there was some kind of a dial, I feel like the game would would have been like an eighty five for everybody. Right, they have maybe they have patched two significant things. Uh since the game released. One of them, they definitely patched the amount of time it takes to switch your weapon. Yeah. Oh interesting, So they that so many people complained about it. Yeah, it's still it's still not instant. It still does take a second or two, but it's not as slow as it was, Okay. Um, And the other the other thing is just a straight up quality of life thing, is you can skip the Jacob's death scenes, um, if you've seen them already, because there's that kind of Yeah, there's a few that kind of go on for like eight or nine seconds. You're like, all right, you're I get it, Like right, I get it. Like murdering me yet again, Yeah you win. You know, Like the game's really doing Oulations game. But that is what you feel like end Zone dance on right, It's like making a poster and put your face on it, like I dunked on you fucker. It's like I get it, you're the game. Congratulations. Sure did oh look you ripped my face off again? Great? So those are those are two significant changes that they definitely patched. That is one of my favorite experiences in video games, though, is getting mad at the game for celebrating your death too much. Like that's the thing that only exists in video games, and uh, it's I feel like we all bond over it. That there's a guy for one of the challenge pits in the latest Horizon game, Forbidden West, where it's like he'll you kept losing. It was you had to fight two guys at once and they were cheap as hell, and when you would lose, he would be like, try again, try harder. So after like the third or fourth time, I'm sitting there scream at this game. Fuck you. Yeah, that's right, that's right at least, Like you know, I always like to use elden Ring because elden Ring is like the gentlest version of enemy triumphs over you. Uh, like at least they take the monsters do a little dance and shit, right, it's usually pretty anti claimactic, yeah in the Soul In the Souls games, I mean, it's infuriating, but it's never like, yeah, they're not doing the worm. Can you imagine like Millennium fucking stabs you to death for the fifty eighth time and then does like a little fucking pirouette and stuff. You're like, oh man, oh fuck you bro. This game is plenty. Like, I think it's also kind of the fun of it. This game doesn't mind dancing on your grave a little bit, you know, No, that's the point. Yes, it's yeah, that's part of it. So um. The only other gameplay thing that I wrote down that I definitely wanted to go into some more detail about is the weapon design in this game. And I don't I don't mean the switching piece. I think it's strange that this game's weapon choices were so limited, and I suspect that the reason for that is ultimately that they wanted the melee combat to be the primary experience. Like, yes, I think that the designer believes and I can't say for sure, but I think they believe this is a melee and to a degree, telekinesis game Like you're you're in the muck with with these guys. That's the goal, and these guns are really here to give you a mild reprieve, but not to replace that, right, Yeah, I think I think that's definitely true. In point of fact, there's like a combo system where you can wail on a guy for a couple of hits and then like a little radical will pop up on them, So if you press the fire button quickly enough, you'll shoot them with your gun for extra damage. So it does seem like the guns were super designed to be supplemental to your your your your beaten stick. I kind of think that, even though I'm sure they've got a lot of negative feedback and I don't know how they're going to internalize it. I kind of feel like the instinct here should be chased. Like I don't think they nailed it, Like, I don't think they created a loop that is satisfying as a new way to do melee combat that games can learn from. I don't think that happened here. It could. It could use a little more variety, for sure. Yeah, that's the problem with it is there's no, it doesn't have a strategic element to it. Um, it doesn't or it up. Yeah, I mean again, like you know, the Souls Born games are the ones that, for like Melee Combat, have created so much variety with the very simple tools they give you. And I think to really innovate in the way that this game wants to, it needs to go more in that direction where like the pacing and stuff is different and the the inputs are slightly different, you know. Um, but still but still good idea though, right, Like still good idea. Um, they may need to like not give you guns at all, you know what I mean, Like they might have to go that far maybe like one or two yeah, like just real you know, for for you to whip out. Because there are a few enemies in this game. There's like a sub boss and then the final boss that you absolutely have to shoot absolutely right. Um, there's there's this like two headed I think he's too it. Yeah, he's two headed, a sort of sub boss character that you fight a bunch where you you he if he if he touches you, you I want to hit kills. So you just have totch around him shoot him a bunch of times. Until he drops to his knees and then just beat the Christ out of him with your bat and then repeat that twice. You can break both of his heads. Yeah, there's one. They do work it into some enemies. There's one particular outing that's very reminiscent of the Giant Drill level. And I think it's dead space too, where like you're you're fighting him in this like big giant space where you're like, you know, trying to fight off other dudes and stuff. Yeah, you're in an elevator in this one. Yeah, but it was very reminiscent. And that fight was the place I got stuck the longest in this game. I think that was tough. Yeah, it was tough. I got I honestly, I got stuck on the end boss for the longest. Well. Well, it was another difficulty spike. And that's the thing a lot of games are doing. They're putting these final bosses where like, now you need to learn a few new skills, and it's like, no final boss should be should be the combination of everything we learned. Yeah, it's the hero's journey, man. It's like show me the new stuff you learned, show me the old stuff you were always good at you know, like it's hero's journey. Um, I think it is present in this in this final boss fight, it's just not immediately clear. I think that was my biggest issue. They didn't they didn't lay it out enough, so it was a little bit confusing. That's right. Yeah, I remember. I definitely, I definitely spent the first I don't know hour getting killed by this guy. Yeah, trying to figure out the room and the exact sort of I mean, and that's part of fighting a boss, but like trying to figure out the room, trying to figure out the different phases and exactly what I was supposed to do. Um, because it was not the game does not make it clear at all. This is still it is still a combination of like shooting, hitting, throwing things with telekinesis, using little exploding enemies on each other. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's right. It is. Maybe it's telling about how old we're getting, but like an hour's a long time on a boss fight, Like I just don't want to spend that amount of time, you sure, Yeah, there are some exceptions where it's like I get that that's what this game is, but like I in general, I want the game to announce. Yeah, it's like, I get it. That's the game always told me that's what it was going to be, So all right, fair enough, But I still get mad. Oh yeah, I still get mad. I get I'm not sure if I would get even matter if if they did little end zone dances and the Elder Ring, like if Margaret the fellowmen moon walked after killed me thrilled by the idea of it, though it's such a good idea, Like, I don't know if I would get more angry. I might, I might be delighted by those little fucking magma worms just like laying on their belly, like rubbing them like they're having a good time. Yeah, fuck them anyway, this is not an Elder Ring podcast, Chips, it sure does a bag of ruby tummy tummy. The last, just the last point I want to make about the weapons thing is I think that part of the reason why people didn't connect to the Melee, aside from the issues we said, is that again they're kind of going against the cultural xation that we have. So like when you give me a gun in a game, and I have a bat already, and then you give me a gun, I assume the gun is going to be an improvement over the bat, you know, and then every gun I get is going to be better than the last gun I got, or at least different, right, And in this case, I think that they knowingly didn't do that. I think what they did instead is like they wanted to spread out the playing field enough that people could find a way to enjoy the game if they weren't liking the main concept. Like I think this is like sort of a hedging their bets decision. And I mean, I don't know this, this is my this is me philosophying a little bit about it. But that's I think functionally what it became because it didn't it didn't innovate on guns the way Dead Space really did. Like Dead Space the first had great ideas for weapons, you know, they were really fun and they were story driven and they were interesting. And this was like, nah, pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, you get it. Basic stuff. And I'm guessing that that stuff's really only me there to make it so that if you're not loving the melee combat, there's another way to play the game, you know, maybe yeah, yeah, And I would say they might need to go all the way in if they want this franchise to really distinguish itself, you know, they might be cool more, more melee weapons too, different types. That's right. They need Yes, they need to think broader about what a melee weapon is, uh, and go all the way in with this concept because otherwise I think it's going to feel derivative and people are gonna pile on. You know. I do like how gritty just a bat is. Yeah, this game is the game is so grimy, but a lot of games have a grimy bat, you know what I mean? Like, this isn't the only ones true? Right that I don't need to go to Kalisto in the future to get a grimmy bat. You know, No, that's true. I got one in my end right now, whisked four hundred years. It's like you that's all I get. Yeah, that's it. Anyway to recover from the shock of only having a bat in the future, Tom and I are going to spend all of our precious money on a nail, putting that bat and come back and finish things up on the other side of a couple of ads. See you soon, and we're back, hopefully hopefully about the nail, because I did not go to the chaos. Oh I was putting all sorts of weird things on my bat. Oh good, good, Then you can go first down this hallway. Bottle caps, fish bottle caps. I guess they are kind of sharp sand, a little bit of sand. Oh yeah, yeah, some Tabasco sauce. You know that's texture pain. Yeah, yeah, you're giving them texture pain. The texture is the thing this game does better than I maybe any other game ever, if I had to pick one word for sure, Yeah, I think this is Like, like I said earlier, this is one of the best, if not the best looking games I've ever played. And when we say that, what we mean is that like it's creating reality, Like this place feels more real than basically any other video game place I can think of. Like it's not the it's not the best designed game visually, Like you know, Horizon Forbidden West looms pretty large in that category. Um sure, or you know Godawar Ragnarok, if that's your thing, whatever, whatever version of that you like. This game chose to be beautiful, yes, but to create an aesthetic that was absolutely almost photographically rendered, and it's really well done, you know, so well done to them. Yeah, I think it's time, Tom. I think it's time that we pass that final checkpoint and get right into keeper delete. Uh, you know you have a full vote. You know you know you have a tea here to the power. Yeah, you know I have. I can I can stick this little key in here, Yeah, you can. I just I'm just kind of rubbing it around the edge right now. It's warmer than slide this key. So what are you gonna do with this power? I mean, I mean, honestly delete. It's like he said, like you said, it's not a classic. It's I like it. Um. I am glad that I owned this game. I will probably play it through a few more times. If they make more, I will play those games as well. But it's not like you said, it's not dead Space. It's it exists too much in dead Space's shadow. I think, yeah, yeah, you've proven why you deserve the key, Tom, because you've used it responsibly this day. I also am going to delete this game. I think the reason, and I kind of feel like we both knew that we would, But I think the reason it deserved to be covered is that it actually is a bit of an innovative game in some ways, like it's super derivative in all the ways that we said. But I respect any game that's trying to do something on an interesting and new and this game did do that. You know. Yeah, it's it's super fun. Yeah it is. It's so it's so satisfying, it is this game. Yeah, if you're a person that, like, you know, loves practical effects, you know what I mean, Like if you're if you're one of those those gore hounds like that, you'll never find a game you like better than this, Like it's right in there. Yeah for you. You know, well, Tom, we loved having you. What a thrill. Hey thanks, Yeah, man, I loved to be here. Yeah, you've filled in admirably when we were micleish. Where can we find and enjoy your content in the future, which I know we all will want to do. Oh hey, well listen. I co host and own a podcast network with my buddy and former Crack co worker David Belton. It's been on the show before. Oh yeah, um, Gamefully Unemployed. You can check it out on Apple or or wherever you get your podcasts. And also we have a Patreon, Patreon dot com slash Gamefully Unemployed, where we have a couple of exclusive podcasts. We do movie nights with our patrons. You can uh commission your own podcast series about pretty much whatever you want. We got a lot of cool stuff over there. Um And we actually just started a video game podcast called scream Play that's specifically about horror video games. Is hosted by me and my brother um and we covered this game but from a different angle from the from the how scary is at angle basically, So check all that stuff out. I want to be on that. I want to you want, I want to come on and scream into that podcast if if I'm I'm sure, If I'm sure, I'd love to. Yeah, absolutely, anytime. That'd be great. I love. Actually, horror games are I'm realizing, like pretty high up in my list of game genres. Like Yeah, I think one of one of the things we sort of talk about in the show is a horror is or rather video games is a great a great um platform. Yeah, media, what am I thinking? Medium for horror medium? There is a great medium for horror because as you experience it, Yes, so the stuff that doesn't seem as scary in a movie, like the simple the simple fact of being chased by something not as scary in a movie, But when you're playing a game like the Resident Evil two remake, for example, or like Alien Isolation, when you're completely powerless and this horrible monster is chasing you down, it's scary. Yeah, Like a video game can make that ridiculous asshole mister X from Resideval three, the trench coated mutant into a legitimately terrifying experience the whole time. Yeah you know this the gigantic basketball biker zombie. Yeah with a noir trench Yeah. Yeah, I mean stupid looking, fucking creature, but also legitimately terrifying. By the way, Tom, Resideval like that might be one of my favorite video game franchise. I'm starting to realize every time I go, yeah, they're really good. It's like, you know what, this franchise has been underrated at this point. Um, it's it's really good. Um Anyway, Yeah, I was gonna say I think they took too much of a hit for Resident Evil six. Like a lot of people super didn't like that one. Yeah okay, um, and yeah, like I this mean this may just be me remembering it, but I feel like a whole lot of people were super down on Resident Evil after that sixth game came out, and yet the seventh the one is a fucking home run, like the seventh one is its great? Yeah, it's so good. Yeah, even eight is very stupid, but it's but it's also really good. Like anyway, Uh, Resident Resident Evil, maybe as a series deserves a one obsmanship Like I like all the games individually, and we could talk about them all individually, and we probably will. But I also think once in a while a series kind of deserves a conversation like what does it mean? Um? And Resident Evil is important in video games? Uh, for a lot of reasons. That's neither here nor there. My friend, you were excellent as always. I'm so glad. We let's talk about this. So were you, buddy, Thank you, thank you. You can't hear that enough. We're two excellent dudes. We are just the best. We would have been the best Calisto protocols if it had been in a space prison, had been the protocols. If it had been us, we would have survived that space prison. Uh. Let me get my cowboy hat in my tabasco bat. I really do need a cowboy. Perhaps some designers listening will sat my cowboy. In any case, see it next time. Ship Heads on one upsmanship complete
