Saturday, 23 August 2014

Gone Home



I am huge fan of story based games. I mean I do play games with no storyline but games with storyline make me get attached to more quickly than games with no storyline.  Recently, I discovered a game called “Gone Home”.

Gone home
I got hold of a game copy and played it. Basically, in this game all you need to do is go around the house to learn about yourself and to have a better understanding on what’s going on at home while you were gone for a year. 

The player views the world in first person point of view. As the character, the player has to go around the house to find for interactive objects and examine it. Some of this interactive objects tells a story which leads to a better understanding.

Room with interactive objects like cabinet and lamp table. 


For an example, the phone voice mail tells us information on what happened in the year the player’s character was away from home. This gives more clues to the player as he/she does not have any idea on what’s going on.

Interactive phone. 


There are no specific missions or time frame to complete the game. You are in a house with tons of objects to look at and try to figure out on what’s going on. That’s all. While you are going around, you are able to uncover more mysteries that lie in the house.

The story is light even though it covers a taboo topic (It’s considered taboo in Singapore). I like the approach of narration and storytelling. It’s similar to point and click adventure but it’s in 3D.


This might not be interesting for all as the game does not contain challenges that keep a player going. It’s all about seeking the truth and finding for the missing puzzle piece to complete the puzzle.


I don’t really want to go to in dept with the storyline because the whole game is about the storyline. Overall, I could say that this game is suitable for casual gamers and gamers who wants to spend their time 


Thursday, 14 August 2014

Mountain








There is a game called Mountain. It can be purchased on steam or Humble bundle. I bought my copy on humble bundle for 99 cents. Mountain is a simulation game and it’s unique in its own way. In this simulation, you get to watch the mountain go through different seasons.

Mountain is a game that made me think a lot. I didn’t exactly think about how to go about playing this game in order to win. It was more on pondering whether is it game. Let me explain to you why I thought so.

Basically, in this game, you do not have any controls. At the start, there will be to questions ask and you have to draw out the answer. Once you get pass the stage, you will see a mountain and the game begins. You are the mountain and you see it in a third person’s point of view.



Throughout the game, you just get to be a mountain. There are no inputs. The mountain spins by itself and at times seasons or weather changes. While the game is going on, you are allowed to press certain keys to play piano notes. You can also spin the mountain to a certain angle, zoom in and out to see the mountain in different angle and also move around unnatural objects (such as trashcan) to a different part of the mountain. All these inputs do not affect the growth of the mountain.

Changes in the season

Zoomed out view


Thus, you can still do your work while your game is still running on your computer tab.  On top of that, the game has auto save function. Basically, if you close your game by accident, you can continue from where it ended.

Is Mountain really a game? Honestly, in my point of view, I really think that mountain is a game. As I have mentioned before, Mountain is like a simulation game. I believe the creator is trying to make the game as realistic as possible.

Player gets to be a mountain. As a mountain, you are not able to do much. You are not able to protect yourself from bad weather or anything. As a mountain, you have no controls. You watch things grow and die. You watch how seasons change the appearance of the mountain.

Mountain is one of the unique games. Maybe, it might not be a game that would break through the current game industry and be extremely popular. It’s better not to compare it with other simulation game as Mountain itself could stand alone in this category. It may seem like a complete waste of money but if you look at the art, the music and able to see occasional thoughts of the mountain, it’s not that bad after all.


Mountain is a game that might be abandoned in the dark of my games library. It’s definitely a game I would never feel excited to play it again, but I can confidently say that the I would not forget about this game.