#oneaday Day 707: Finding the Good

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One thing I've always said about my work on MoeGamer is that I make a specific effort to "find the good" in pretty much everything I play. It's extremely rare that I come across a game with absolutely no redeeming features whatsoever — and I tend to take the attitude that if it exists, it's probably important to someone, even if that someone is just the creator.

With this in mind, I came to Quantum Theory on Xbox 360, a third-person shooter from the director of Fatal Frame. This is a title that has a woeful Metascore, but which both Chris and I have always found intriguing for one reason or another. And, as you'll know very well if you've been following my work for a while, a low Metascore is often reason for me to check something out rather than avoid it like the plague — particularly now games like this can be picked up for pocket change.

I'm a few hours into the game now, and, as you might expect, I'm having a much better time than the reviews from when it first came out might suggest. Coming at it with an awareness of gaming history and a decent understanding of mechanics, too, I'm seeing things that it's doing that were ignored or written off back when it was first reviewed.

Most notably, I'm keenly aware of the fact that it is not, as many reviewers claimed, a Gears of War clone. Yes, the base mechanics are suspiciously similar to Epic's popular title — right down to including the "roadie run" and the sticky cover — but the structure is very different. In practice, it functions in an almost arcadey manner — you work your way from room to room, dispatching all the enemies there, before moving on. There's an almost "rail shooter" feel to it at times, in that enemies come from various places around the stage, and you need to use your observational skills to deal with them, prioritise your targets and keep yourself safe.

I finished for the evening just at the point where a new mechanic is introduced: a sidekick character called Filena, who you can basically "throw" at enemies for a melee attack, and use in combination attacks and suchlike. You get a very brief preview of how this will all work in the game's introductory mission, but from this point on it looks like it's going to be a standard part of gameplay.

I'm looking forward to exploring the game further — and the knowledge that it's the work of Makoto Shibata just makes it all the more interesting to me. It's very obviously one of those games from the period when a lot of Japanese devs and publishers were trying to "appeal to the West" — but it's also got plenty of interesting, unique things about it, and I think it got a pretty raw deal back in the day. So, when I've had time to plough through it, I will do my bit to rectify that situation!

Anyway, for now, it's bedtime. Should polish off Atelier Lulua tomorrow, all being well — I'm pretty sure I've got my save file primed for all the possible endings, so looking forward to seeing the various conclusions!

Hope you've all had a good weekend. Speak soon! Or not. You know what I mean. Just being conversational. Anyway. Bye.