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Lego Dimensions: Ghostbusters (PS4): COMPLETED!

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No, not the new film and the (much longer) level pack: this is the original one with Bill Murray in. As with other level packs, this takes an abridged look at the source material. There’s the fight with Slimer in the hotel, some stuff in the streets of New York, and then the face-off with Gozer and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

ghostbusters

The only Ghostbuster available (at least, unless you can unlock more in other packs?) is Venkmann, and there are very few places elsewhere in the level where you need to use other characters. In fact, I didn’t even put Batman on the portal. The Ecto-1 physical model is great, even if it doesn’t offer anything you can’t already do with the Batmobile, but the ghost trap does something new: You collect ghosts with Venkmann’s proton pack and then “steer” them into the trap. Just like in the film!

It’s full of audio straight from the source, and there are some funny additions.

Current status: Adventure Time > Midway Arcade > Doctor Who > The Simpsons > Ghostbusters > Back to the Future.

 

The post Lego Dimensions: Ghostbusters (PS4): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

Lifeline: Whiteout (iOS): COMPLETED!

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Rarely, I play games on my telephone. I used to a lot, back when I got my iPhone 3GS, but these days? Nope. There might well be some good telephone games on the App Store but without recommendations who knows? There’s so much tripe to work through. And, since most people I know, follow, etc. don’t play telephone games either, it’s hard to come across good stuff. Yes, there are sites that review them but I don’t believe them. I’ve had enough of “experts”.

lifeline: whiteoutAnyway. Some time ago I was pointed in the direction of Lifeline. It’s a text adventure with minimal, mostly choice based, interaction, and I not only bought it, but played and completed it. High praise indeed.

A few days ago, a sequel to Lifeline, Lifeline: Whiteout was free on the Fruit-Themed Telephone App Store and I downloaded it. And completed it.

Like before, the premise is that someone in trouble contacts you and asks for help. You don’t know them, they don’t know you, and in this case, they don’t know them either. You advise them where to go, what to do, things to avoid, and so on in a series of decisions. In the first game, the person you were helping was lost on a planet, but in Lifeline: Whiteout they’re stuck in some snowy tundra and require your help in order to 1) survive, and 2) figure out who they are.

As with the original, the story plays out in real time, over the course of about three real days. Some conversation happens, and then your guy goes off for a bit to carry out tasks, sleep, and stuff. When he’s finished, he sends your phone a notification he’d ready to chat again. It’s quite immersive. I can’t say too much about what actually happens as there lies spoilers aplenty, but there are a few grim moments.

It’s another good game, and I can recommend it even to other mobilegameophobes like myself.

The post Lifeline: Whiteout (iOS): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

Gravity Rush: a long time coming

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I got Gravity Rush when it was free on PS+, and it was one of the first games I played on my Vita when I got it for Christmas in 2013.  However, with the mass of games I got with the system, and the more complicated nature of the game, it got left behind.

And then last year, on returning to work, I decided to play it again.  I completed a few more chapters, but was utterly lost and couldn't work out the controls to feel like I knew what I was doing.


So, obviously, the best thing to do is to leave it a couple of years and try again.  And this time it's stuck.


When I left the game back in 2015, I couldn't work out where I needed to go to progress.  I must have missed the legend on the map, and the bright red marker.  I flew around for a bit, and then jumped on a train to go to a new area - and as I stood on top of the train, the colour palette shifting in the background, something clicked about what I was trying to do.  The story didn't pull me in before, but the fact that parts of the town are missing and people's loved ones have disappeared can't be ignored.  I'll get them all back.

I just wish it was a little easier.  The controls feel quite clunky - but that may be by design, since the idea of gravity shifting is that you are just falling in a different direction.  Not much finesse there.  After a bit of experimentation I found the upgrades menu, which allowed me to extend the amount of time Kat can fly for, and improved the power of her kicks.  This, combined with learning the gravity kicks and other special moves, has turned this from a game I was struggling with to one I'm enjoying.


It's still a little cringeworthy in places; the fact that the entire town seems to be trying to hit on Kat is constantly annoying.  There are a lot of elements to the story which seem disjointed - a couple who seem to be travelling in time, a creator who sends Kat to the rift plains to bring back the town, the nevi who appear from nowhere, another gravity shifter called Raven who seems to be rather antagonistic, the police force and a detective called Sid who seem to be a bit incompetent.


And someone or something called Alias, who wants to steal power gems and has some sort of control over the nevi.


The fight with Alias was a bit of an anticlimax, actually.  He was built up as the main enemy, very mysterious behind a mask, but the game didn't end with his defeat.  A good thing, probably, because otherwise that would have been a very short game with many things unresolved - and with probably the worst end-game boss battle ever.

Alias throws red blobs at you, and they're difficult to evade.  It's best to hide behind a building, and then pop out and use a special move that lobs rocks at enemies.  But that recharges really slowly, so the majority of the boss fight is spent standing still and hiding.


And hearing him say that, over and over again.

I could have taken more risks, with more direct attacks and getting closer, but it didn't seem worth it.

Anyway, Alias defeated, and with the big tall tower in place, I explored some more.  The draw distance is cleverly disguised with the art style - you have to go to some extremes to get all the building faded out though.


My exploration found a lady looking over the edge of the city, saying she had dropped the last letter from her boyfriend down there.  I went down to pick it up ... and went down and down and down.  Half way down I met Raven again, who tried to stop me - but failed.


Now I'm in some sort of little village, in a cage.  No sign of a letter.  Hmm.

Sonic the Hedgehog: completed!

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Do you know what? I'd never actually completed the first Sonic game on the Master System, before now.  I could have sworn I had, but beyond the first few zones I realised that it was uncharted territory; I'm not sure I've ever even beaten the Jungle Zone boss.

Sonic on the Master System is a great game.  It's not as good as the first Mega Drive game, and Sonic's movement is a little floaty and imprecise, but the levels are designed well around the character and movement.  There are some big changes to gameplay, such as the ability to collect rings after you've been hit, and the collision detection seems a little off as well.

The levels are similar, but not identical to the Mega Drive game.  The fist two levels - Green Hill and Bridge - are a bit too samey, but after that the scenery changes, sometimes aping the Mega Drive's levels (with very close similarity to the Labyrinth Zone and the Scrap Brain Zone), and sometimes with a completely separate feel (the Jungle Zone has never been revisited, as far as I'm aware).




The special stages on the Mega Drive were where the hardware was used to maximum effect, and it's here that the Master System is a bit of a let down.  Built around different coloured springs, but with the game moving a little too fast to be able to judge where you're landing, this felt too much like a random mess - more so than the Spring Yard Zone or Casino Night Zone, and even more so than Sonic Spinball.


Some of the bosses seemed overly simplistic, while some were a little more tricky.   The Jungle Zone boss was one of the more tricky ones, but not because of his movements, more the slightly clunky jump that Sonic had from the angled platforms at each end.


 Some of the later stages worked really well, particularly those that forced Sonic to slow down - maybe belying the fact that the Master System wasn't built for Sonic's usual speed.  With a slower tempo, the level design was massively changed with many more rates ad hidden parts, and the jumps made more difficult.  Lightning flashed around the level making Sonic wait for it to clear.  This was, perhaps, my favourite level - the Sky Base Zone had some similarity at times to the Wing Fortress Zone at times.



And it all ended with a pretty disappointing boss fight.  Standing on the far left of the screen, as below, nothing could hit Sonic, meaning he could just wait for the electric barrier to drop and dash over to hit the glass tube.  A few hits later, and he was down.


No, I didn't collect all the chaos emeralds.  Yes, I probably will one day.  Yes, I'm counting this as completed.