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Frostpunk 2
I have played and completed Frostpunk 2 via Game Pass in about 15 hours.
Frostpunk 2 is a sequel to the original both narratively and from a gameplay perspective. New London survived under the Captain’s rule in this alternative history 1899 ice age, but with his death, the fate of the city now rests in the Steward’s (aka your) hands. With a much more zoomed-out perspective, you must carve out space for various districts, explore and set up outposts, and placate diametrically-opposed factions whilst also ensuring the city never falls to the cold.
In the original game, the “plot” was broken into various Scenarios. With Frostpunk 2, there is a single narrative thread composed of five Chapters, throughout which your city progress is maintained. This continuity resolves a lot of the issues I had with the original game, wherein tech tree unlocks seemed pointless considering you barely had time to research any of them before the Scenario was over. Continuity also makes your early decisions much more important, as you continue to receive the benefits of it for a dozen hours. For example, your scouts might discover wreckage and give you a choice: gain important materials, or get +800 Workforce permanently. Choosing the resources might get you out of an immediate crisis, but there actually is a “long-term” to consider here.
Of course, that also becomes a problem. Although I beat Frostpunk 2 in ~15 hours, realistically the game was over after about 8 hours. By the time Chapter 3 rolled around, I had maximized the citizens’ Trust, all Factions supported me, and I was running a surplus of every material with an immense stockpile behind it. I played on the equivalent of Veteran difficulty, and so it’s possible that this is an indication I should have challenged myself further. However, I doubt harsher RNG events and a poorer start will make some of the “binary” choices/tech less obviously OP. If anything, I am now much more savvy to which Laws are critical to unlock early and which can wait.
On the other hand, the likelihood of my playing again is kind of low. Having a strict narrative thread means experiencing the same events in the same order, exploring the same map, and maybe making different choices for roleplaying purposes. The game is extremely engaging in the moment – way “worse” than the Civilization “just one more turn” hour evaporation – but a lot of that depended on the consumption of novelty. There is an Endless Mode option available, although how interesting that may be is dubious; as I mentioned previously, there are actually ways to end up effectively infinite even within the base game. Best I can do is hope there are updates in the future that add new Scenarios in.
Overall though, Frostpunk 2 is an extremely slick and fun city-builder for the time I spent with it. Given how much was changed, it’s hard to say whether someone who loved/hated the original would find the sequel any better. It’s on Game Pass though, so it’s relatively easy to give it a whirl.
Review: Far Cry 3
Game: Far Cry 3
Recommended price: $15
Metacritic Score: 88
Completion Time: ~18 hours
Buy If You Like: Far Cry series, mostly-open world FPS
Some seriously nice graphics.
Far Cry 3 is the latest entry in the mostly unrelated, Heart of Darkness-esque Far Cry series. The game follows Jason, a trust fund frat boy who is violently thrust into a hideous underworld of slavery, rape, and torture on an otherwise pristine island paradise when his friends are captured mid-vacation by pirates. Much like the other two games, FC3 features a long string of story missions set amidst a wide-open island sandbox.
Far Cry 3 has a lot going for it. The game is unbelievably slick, from top to bottom, in almost every respect. For example, it is easily the best-looking Far Cry, with graphics and sweeping vistas that rival the likes of Skyrim. But the slickness permeates deeper still, down to character animations too. Stealth kills start off brutal and in-your-face, only to escalate further once you unlock the ability chain them together, use the target’s own knife to score a long-distance secondary kill, and so on. This sort of Ninja Gaiden feel is on top of the many layers of weaponry that impart similar visceral thrills, be they sneaky bow sniping or front-door grenade launcher-ing.
Another thing that was extremely well-done are the missions, dialog, and general plot. Missions flow well, the various tasks you are given feel substantial and necessary, the characters are absolutely unique, and there is a general sense of gravitas to your actions. In comparison, the mission structure in Far Cry 2 made less sense, or at least, it felt less impactful.
But therein lies the rub.
Grenade Launcher is a tad OP. One shot, 3 vehicle explosions.
As I have mentioned over the years, I view Far Cry 2 as one of the more sublime gaming experiences I’ve ever had. That game knowingly used its own flaws as a vehicle for storytelling, such that by the end of the game, you felt exactly how the in-game characters felt: weary, despondent, and resigned. Far Cry 3 attempts to recall the same lightning, but it can’t quite pull it off, for several reasons.
One of those reasons is that Far Cry 3 feels a lot more “gamey” than its predecessors. Part of the progression system involves hunting and skinning various animals to unlock additional weapon slots, a larger wallet, and so on. By itself, the mechanic is perfectly valid. However, it feels more artificial, especially given the fact that you are straight-up using cash in the stores to buy things. Why do I need to skin goats to expand my $1000 wallet? Couldn’t I just, you know, pay the $50 for a new wallet? Does this store really sell sniper rifles but no wallets?
That might sound like a little thing, but it’s precisely the little things that can break immersion. Far Cry 3 features a normal sort of game map, for example, but it’s a, ahem, far cry from the in-game map you had to actually glance downwards to see in FC2. More jarring to me though, was the crafting interface that necessitated crafting via the menu screen. Popping syringes felt pretty smooth, but effectively pausing the game with bullets in mid-air to pump out another half-dozen healing ampules just sorta felt wrong. And I haven’t even mentioned the interface riddled with perfectly usable but undeniably busy UI elements, mini-maps, quest trackers, and so on. Far Cry 2 didn’t even have crosshairs on by default, for god’s sake.
I, uh, I didn’t start the fire…
It is worth mentioning, in a general sense, that Far Cry 3 also continues the series penchant for wildly oscillating difficulty curves. If your natural inclination is to try and be as stealthy as possible when assassinating targets, you will experience some nice challenges. If you instead realize that a single flame arrow can burn down the hut your target is inside, or your bafflement towards unlocking infinite grenade launchers so early in the game leads to always equipping it, well… the game is remarkably easy. There are still a few missions where you can lose by raising the alarm or by letting an NPC die, but damn do you feel silly sneaking around after bombarding outposts with grenade fire and/or regular fire. Same outcome, minimum effort.
Overall though, I still feel like Far Cry 3 deserves top marks. Recommending that someone play FC2 carries a bit of baggage, as it doesn’t really become “worth it” unless they stick through it the entire way. In contrast, someone could play Far Cry 3 at pretty much any given moment in the game and feel like they experienced the best bits. I have seen some reviews that lament FC3’s later half for being less noteworthy, but while the main antagonists are less interesting at that point, it is somewhat offset by gaining a wingsuit and ample means to use it everywhere. Far Cry 3 is not particularly long, but I believe it’ll be worth the lower purchase price for most anyone… or at least FPS fans.
In An Age 